History, they say, is written by the winners. Windows, and DOS before, were largely plagiarized. DOS 1.0 I remember well, as I found it easier to use CP/M to setup a network for Metropinion Inc. in Austin, TX in 1987. I used Osborne portable PCs, with the keyboards that snapped over the face of the suitcase sized computer with it's ~7 inch green monochrome monitor and dual 5.25" floppy disk drives.
DR DOS had come out with a rival OS to CP/M, and Microshaft just stole it, and didn't even change the name much.
Then Apple came out with the Macintosh, with it's slick GUI. Microshaft stole that too, and called it Windows. The architecture of the Intel machines was different enough that the Apple GUI needed significant workarounds and was unwieldy, and this is why Windows95 was born.
The only reason Microshaft became the go to OS for corporations is piracy. Gates was deeply aware of the hacking community, and their distaste for proprietary and copyrighted software (thus birthing Linux and the OSS movement) and used it to invite them - sotto voce - to crack his OS.
He squawked loudest about 'piracy' and was front and center in the BSA (Business Software Alliance, an early anti-piracy outfit), which he knew was hackle-raising to the 'information must be free' crowd. Then he instituted the most dismal and weak security measures for all his products, practically ensuring hackers would chortle with glee as they successfully and easily cracked his feeble security measures and used his products, just to spite him.
Since the IT industry was run by those same hackers, and they used Windows on their personal systems, all their apps thus were ported to his OS. When they did work for the Fortune 500 they wanted to use their apps, and had their clients use Windows so their apps would work and they would use a software environment they were familiar with.
That is why Windows became the go to OS.
Evil genius.
Thanks!
Bill Gates really is a genius. But I'd rather call him opportunistic than evil. He sent IBM to the guy who build the original OS and when he screwed up th deal and IBM re-contacted Gates, he just bought the ripoff company and signed a non-exclusive deal. When the Gary Kildall was finally given a chance to compete, he made his OS 6 times more expensive than DOS.
It's a really sad story that's almost like a Greek tragedy with an unfortunate death.
Bill Gates also compromised the quality of the eco-system for reaching critical mass in adoption. Steve Jobs had some major issues with this philosophy.