| In 1985, the typical PC had an 8088 or 80286 processor with between 256KB and
640KB of RAM. The OS (operating system) was DOS, and Microsoft was not yet
shipping any version of Windows.
DOS could only run one program at a time. If you were writing in your word
processor and needed to check some numbers in your spreadsheet, you had to save
your document, close your word processor, open your spreadsheet program, load
your worksheet, check your numbers, close your spreadsheet, open your word
processor, and reload your document.
To overcome the problem of only being able to run one program at a time, in
February 1985, IBM introduced TopView. TopView was a character-based
multitasking environment. At this time, most computers did not have mice. The
few with a mouse had one that had three buttons rather than the two-button mice
we use today. TopView used this now-defunct third mouse button for its
operations.
TopView had a number of problems that doomed it to failure. First, its memory
requirements were out of line with the computers of that day. Second, it was
slow, and in 1985, computers were too slow to accommodate it. (TopView was so
slow that its nickname was TopHeavy.) Third, it was not 100% compatible with
DOS, and many programs needed to be adapted to run under TopView.
TopView was a major failure in the marketplace and is often found on lists of
the top 10 blunders of the PC industry. However, it would have a lasting impact
on IBM. Microsoft contacted IBM several times regarding a program they were
developing called Windows. IBM was not interested because, at the time, they
were working on TopView. After the release of Windows, IBM would scrap TopView
in June 1987 when IBM and Microsoft began cooperating on the development of
OS/2. |
