I found the interview quite interesting... what "Alan Michael Sugar Trading" (Amstrad) achieved in the 80s was nothing short of extraordinary... their machines were actually pretty naff, but they were cheap... and they kept up the free thinking that had characterised computing up until the mid-80s (Sinclair, Acorn, Oric, Dragon etc.) as most of the industry started to consolidate around one or two preferred architectures.... when everybody else in the world seemed resigned to either using 5.25" floppies or 3.5" Amstrad came up with their own 3" format... when the trend was towards varieties of DOS (be it DR-DOS or MS-DOS) they produced computers and word processors running CP/M. What Alan doesn't mention in his interview is that they might have bought some copies of MS-DOS for their PCs, but they certainly weren't having anything to do with Bill's fledgling "Windows", instead shipping with Digital Research's GEM.
Alan did what he did VERY well, which is no doubt why he managed to seal the contract with Sky to supply boxes when they launched, and is still one of the major suppliers of Digiboxes to this day. Having sold Amstrad to Sky last year, and with a lucrative income from TV appearances and lecturing/consultation, I don't imagine Sugar has any interest at all in watching trends in computing. Was he still on the ball he wouldn't have said what he did in that interview. If Microsoft had a monopoly on computing in 2003 it most certainly doesn't any more. Offices using Excel and Word formats doesn't necessarily mean they're using Excel or Word - not now, with Openoffice being so strong. I wonder what controls Alan's Sky boxes? I bet it's not Windows - is it? Sean -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.org/UKTeam/
