Re:Microsoft? Who knew! (Score 1)

This isn't the first time Microsoft has benefited from the copy protection mistakes of others. Back in the 80's when Lotus 123 ruled the spreadsheet market, it irritatingly required a Lotus disc in the floppy drive in order to start up. This was a particularly bad idea back then because floppies were prone to failure at unpredictable and inconvenient times. People quickly learned to use the utility CopyIIPC to make copies of their Lotus floppy to make sure they could access their data. When the Lotus clone-cum-enhancements Quatro Pro from Borland came out, complete with Lotus compatibility, a lower price, and no requirement for the floppy in the drive, many spreadsheet users switched over almost overnight. With Lotus's hold on the market broken, the way was left open for Excel to eventually dominate.