History MediaNotes / ComputerWars

Broadly speaking, the competition between computer companies to increase their market share. More specifically, though, the Computer Wars refer to arguments (usually online) between computer users themselves as to the superiority of the various systems and companies. Even more specifically, the ones detailed on this page will refer to microcomputers, the type usually bought by people for personal use. (See UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers as well.)

While Apple and IBM are still around today, the kings of the home computer business are the long-defunct companies Commodore and Sinclair. Commodore's VIC-20 and the higher-end Platform/{{Commodore 64}} utterly destroyed most of the other 8-bits in the American home market. Commodore cut prices to $200 for a C64. They sued any ex-Commodore engineer who tried to found their own business. They gave $100 rebates to anyone who shipped Commodore their old computer. Because of this, its market share jumped from 7% in 1982 to ''40%'' exactly one year later. Its excellent graphics and sound (for an 8-bit computer) also allowed it to steal market share from game consoles as well. (This caused [[UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole more wars]].) And to top it all off, they managed to rope Creator/WilliamShatner in as their spokesperson. Unable to fight this juggernaut, Texas Instruments and Tandy abandoned their own platforms and became IBM-clone makers.

[[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile The 2000s saw great increases in the usage share of cell phones among the population at large]]. There arose high-end "smartphone" cell phones, equipped with touchscreens and enough processing power and memory / storage capacity to rival that of many desktop and/or notebook [=PCs=] from the previous decade (and thus being suitable for running {{mobile phone game}}s on). The category of "tablet [=PCs=]" also emerged, consisting of machines with internal hardware similar to smartphones [[note]](most of them, that is; a few have internals more like that of notebook [=PCs=])[[/note]], but with much larger touchscreens, and not all of them able to function as cell phones. As a side effect of the large-scale production of internal hardware components for smartphones and tablets, there arose a niche market of small "single-board computers" based on smartphone-class internals (such as the [=DigiKey=] / Texas Instruments [=BeagleBoard=] and the UsefulNotes/RaspberryPi), intended for use by computer experts (such as students and hobbyist programmers).

[[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars Now doesn't this sound familiar?]]

* '''Sides''': Commodore Platform/VIC20, Sinclair [=ZX80=], Apple ][ (again) and III, [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer IBM PC]], Radio Shack's Platform/TRS80 UsefulNotes/ColorComputer, Osbourne 1, and a whole lot of others.

The low prices of these systems meant that almost anyone who wanted to program a computer could do so. Many game developers for consoles, most famously Creator/{{Rare}}, started out in the home computer market, and the avalanche of software made for them nearly [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 made the game console extinct]]. Despite being low-end systems when they came out, both would last well into the 1990s.

* '''Sides''': UsefulNotes/AppleII, Radio Shack's UsefulNotes/TRS80, Platform/CommodorePET, [[UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers Atari 400/800]], and various CP/M machines.

* '''Sides''': Commodore Platform/VIC20, Sinclair [=ZX80=], Apple ][ (again) and III, [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer IBM PC]], Radio Shack's UsefulNotes/TRS80 UsefulNotes/ColorComputer, Osbourne 1, and a whole lot of others.

While Apple and IBM are still around today, the kings of the home computer business are the long-defunct companies Commodore and Sinclair. Commodore's VIC-20 and the higher-end UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} utterly destroyed most of the other 8-bits in the American home market. Commodore cut prices to $200 for a C64. They sued any ex-Commodore engineer who tried to found their own business. They gave $100 rebates to anyone who shipped Commodore their old computer. Because of this, its market share jumped from 7% in 1982 to ''40%'' exactly one year later. Its excellent graphics and sound (for an 8-bit computer) also allowed it to steal market share from game consoles as well. (This caused [[UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole more wars]].) And to top it all off, they managed to rope Creator/WilliamShatner in as their spokesperson. Unable to fight this juggernaut, Texas Instruments and Tandy abandoned their own platforms and became IBM-clone makers.

But Commodore met its low-cost match in the United Kingdom: Sinclair had spent years pursuing the goal of the world's cheapest home computer, and by 1984, Britons could get a $50 [=ZX81=] or a $150 UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum. It even pushed out game consoles like the NES due to its sheer value. In the East Bloc, it was ''the'' home computer, as it was extremely easy to implement — it had none of the custom chips of the C64. [[FandomRivalry Just don't ask which one is better.]]

As for other computers, the Apple [=IIc=] updated the older [=IIe=] and is fondly remembered by schoolchildren of the 1980s, and the IBM PC continued to climb in market share,. Apple also released their first GUI-driven computer, the Lisa during this war, and while it didn't make much traction due to its absurdly high price, it nevertheless gave the company valuable experience for their next product. In Japan {{UsefulNotes/MSX}} reigned supreme, though towards the end of this period much more powerful (but still [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive]]) 16/32-bit systems like the NEC UsefulNotes/PC98, the Fujitsu FM Towns and especially the UsefulNotes/SharpX68000 displaced it from the top.

* '''Sides''': The UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh line, [[UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} Commodore Amiga]], NEC UsefulNotes/PC98, UsefulNotes/SharpX68000, Fujitsu FM Towns, UsefulNotes/AtariST, Apple [=IIc/IIgs=], IBM PC clones, The UsefulNotes/{{MSX}} line up (again), and Commodore 64 (again).

* '''Sides''': UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, UsefulNotes/MacOS, [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} GNU/Linux, BSD]], [=BeOS=], IBM [=OS/2=], [=ChromeOS=].

Meanwhile, various free UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} spinoffs have become popular as a geek OS. The most famous of these are the various GNU/Linux distributions, based on the kernel written by Linus Torvalds and a suite of tools originally developed as part of Richard Stallman's GNU project, an attempt to create a complete operating system where anyone may use, copy, modify, and redistribute any component for any purpose. Despite being made available free of charge, GNU/Linux is not particularly common on desktops, partly because of a widespread belief that it is hard to use, and also because of limited support from the most significant software, game developers, and, to a lesser extent, hardware manufacturers. While work is going into addressing the first and last problems, the second is a lot more complicated, arising from a combination of political, economic, and technical issues. Meanwhile, development on the original GNU kernel, HURD, [[DevelopmentHell is still rather slow]].

* '''Sides''': Commodore UsefulNotes/VIC20, Sinclair [=ZX80=], Apple ][ (again) and III, [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer IBM PC]], Radio Shack's UsefulNotes/TRS80 UsefulNotes/ColorComputer, Osbourne 1, and a whole lot of others.

On the other side of the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain, the situation curiously repeated the Western one, but lagged behind by 5-10 years. By that time [=PCs=] and their clones barely started to make a dent, as they were imported and thus extremely expensive, while on the home computer market the pitched battle raged between ZX Spectrum (technically, a hordes of locally-produced clones), the whole batch of indigenous 8-bit CP/M machines, and UsefulNotes/BK0010 (a Soviet home-computer-scaled PDP-11 clone). Various Commodore and Atari machines hardly marked on the radar — they had a lot of custom chips and couldn't be implemented on the local technical base, unlike the good ol' Speccy. It won the war on the home market in the end, but by the mid-1990s PC already was the king, and it just quietly died of old age.

* '''Sides''': UsefulNotes/AppleII, Radio Shack's UsefulNotes/TRS80, UsefulNotes/CommodorePET, [[UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers Atari 400/800]], and various CP/M machines.

A new rival emerged in [=ChromeOS=], which is basically "just" a Google Chrome browser. It is idiot proof and comes on cheap disposable laptops, which has earned it a foothold in some schools and businesses, and will soon be capable of running Android apps.

As the prices of computer components began to fall, it became feasible to bundle computers with keyboards, disk and tape storage, and video output, so they began to resemble modern computer systems. But this was still the "Why not, it's the future" era of the home computer, where the idea of a {{killer app}} was a few years away and buyers were expected to know how to code. The companies entering the computer market where either ex-calculator companies (Commodore), hobbyists wanting to go professional (Apple), or electronics retailers selling to said hobbyists (Tandy ).

* '''Winner''': Ongoing and complicated. For desktops, Windows is still winning by an increasingly narrow margin despite valiant efforts by [=macOS=] and [=GNU/Linux=]. [=GNU/Linux=] has the lead for servers and dominates in the fields of supercomputing and computer animation rendering. A new threat to Windows may be [=ChromeOS=] by Website/{{Google}}, which is itself a Linux distribution.

As for Windows during TheNewTens, Windows 8, released in 2012, proved to be so [[BlackSheep unpopular]] that consumers are sticking with Windows 7 or moving to Macs. However, Windows 10[[note]]Microsoft skipped Windows 9, probably so that applications would not confuse it with the Windows 95 or 98, and because 10 is a nice round number.[[/note]] released in 2015 to mostly positive reviews, and reversed many of Windows 8's controversial decisions like the removal of the start menu, bringing Windows back on track. Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would the "last version of Windows", meaning that instead of releasing more major versions of Windows, they would continue to release incremental upgrades to Windows 10. However, Microsoft went back on this in 2021 with the release of Windows 11. Windows 11 was largely seen as a middle-of-the-road revamp of Windows 10, refining the interface while removing some of the last vestiges of Windows 8, such as most of the touchscreen features. Reception was mostly positive, with most seeing it as the same as Windows 10 with a slightly altered interface.

Meanwhile, various free UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} spinoffs have become popular as a geek OS. The most famous of these are the various GNU/Linux distributions, based on the kernel written by Linus Torvalds and a suite of tools originally developed as part of Richard Stallman's GNU project, an attempt to create a complete operating system where anyone may use, copy, modify, and redistribute any component for any purpose. Despite being made available free of charge, GNU/Linux is not particularly common on desktops, partly because of a widespread belief that it is hard to use, and also because of limited support from the most significant software, game developers, and, to a lesser extend, hardware manufacturers. While work is going into addressing the first and last problems, the second is a lot more complicated, arising from a combination of political, economic, and technical issues. Meanwhile, development on the original GNU kernel, HURD, [[DevelopmentHell is still rather slow]].

This period also saw Microsoft fully switching from the old (CP/M derived) DOS-shell Windows to the NT-based XP across their entire product line; just as DOS was reminiscent of old DEC PDP-11 [=OSes=] by way of CP/M, [[SpiritualSuccessor NT was based more-or-less directly on VMS]], UNIX's main competition on the [[TheEighties 1980s]] DEC VAX minicomputers that both latched onto (UNIX started on the PDP-7 and PDP-11, the predecessors to the VAX) -- former VMS developer Dave Cutler left DEC for Microsoft and became the lead developer for Windows NT.

This period also saw Microsoft fully switching from the old (CP/M derived) DOS-shell Windows to the NT-based XP across their entire product line; just as DOS was reminiscent of old DEC PDP-11 [=OSes=] by way of CP/M, [[SpiritualSuccessor NT was based more-or-less directly on VMS]], UNIX's main competition on the [[TheEighties 1980s]] DEC VAX minicomputers that both latched onto (UNIX started on the PDP-7 and PDP-11, the predecessors to the VAX).

* '''Winner''': Ongoing and complicated. For desktops, Windows is still winning by an increasingly narrow margin despite valiant efforts by [=macOS=] and [=GNU/Linux=]. [=GNU/Linux=] has the lead for servers and dominates in the fields of supercomputing and computer animation rendering. A new threat to Windows may be Chrome OS by Website/{{Google}}, which is itself a Linux distribution.

* '''Winner''': Ongoing and complicated. For desktops, Windows is still winning by an increasingly narrow margin despite valiant efforts by OSX and [=GNU/Linux=]. [=GNU/Linux=] has the lead for servers and dominates in the fields of supercomputing and computer animation rendering. A new threat to Windows may be Chrome OS by Website/{{Google}}, which is itself a Linux distribution.

Apple's [=iPhone=] and its operating system [=iOS=] (adapted from OS X), though not the first smartphone, rapidly gained the lead after its debut in 2007. Google released their competitor, a Linux-based OS called Android, during the next year, licensing it to many third-party phone manufacturers (unlike Apple, who opted to manufacture all [=iOS=] devices themselves), and gained the lead in marketshare by 2011.

* '''Sides''': UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, [[UsefulNotes/MacOS OS X]], [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} GNU/Linux, BSD]], [=BeOS=], IBM [=OS/2=], [=ChromeOS=].

As for Windows during TheNewTens, Windows 8, released in 2012, proved to be so [[BlackSheep unpopular]] that consumers are sticking with Windows 7 or moving to Macs. However, Windows 10 released in 2015 to mostly positive reviews, and reversed many of Windows 8's controversial decisions like the removal of the start menu, bringing Windows back on track. Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would the "last version of Windows", meaning that instead of releasing more major versions of Windows, they would continue to release incremental upgrades to Windows 10. However, Microsoft went back on this in 2021 with the release of Windows 11. Windows 11 was largely seen as a middle-of-the-road revamp of Windows 10, refining the interface while removing some of the last vestiges of Windows 8, such as most of the touchscreen features. Reception was mostly positive, with most seeing it as the same as Windows 10 with a slightly altered interface.