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the classic success story about giving product away is MS-DOS.

In the early days of the PC, MS-DOS was clearly inferior to most of the other options, notably Apple's OS. So they made arrangements with PC manufacturers and practically gave it away to get it into the hands and lives of almost everybody who had a PC.



If IBM had not perceived that it had a problem with Apple encroaching on its turf in the business world, we would all be using Apples today and no one would have ever heard of Microsoft. IBM knew absouletely nothing about personal computers when it first went to Bill Gates. In fact, they thought that Gates program BASIC could run on a personal computer without an operating system, and Gates had to set them straight. Ultimately, IBM was in such a hurry, that after they failed to connect in an attempt to acquire use of CP/M, they signed with Gates to provide them an operating system without having him sign an exclusive use contract. Gates made a ton of money from IBM, which funded his cut rate offers to other computer makers. That coupled with Apple's refusal to license their software to anyone led to the predominance of MicroSoft. Another big thing that boosted Microsoft is that people wanted their desktop computers to talk to the big main frame down the hall with big blue's initials on it.



You're right and if Apple had not given all those computers to schools for free/cheap, Apple would probably not be here today!