Re: Microsoft's OS competitors

On Wed, April 23, 1997, Mark Lemley <mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> A question came up in my Computer Law class today that I must confess
> has me puzzled. Why haven't any potential Microsoft competitors
> reverse-engineered its operating system, copied the necessary
> functional components, and built a competing "Windows-compatible"
> operating system?
>
> Some possible reasons, and first-order responses:
>
> 1. Because copyright law would prevent it. [I'm not sure this is true.
> Reverse engineering for the purpose of ensuring compatibility is legal
> in many jurisdictions. Further, Lotus v. Borland suggests that in at
> least one circuit, elements necessary to the operation of Microsoft's
> OS would not be copyrightable at all. More to the point, you would
> expect someone to try it even if there was a little uncertainty about
> the law; witness the cloning of software in the 1980s].
>
> 2. Because patent law would prevent it. [It may be that Microsoft
> now has a good fence of patents around its OS that would prevent
> compatibility, but I doubt it did 10 or even 5 years ago].
>
> 3. Because trade secret law would prevent it. [Microsoft claims that
> circulating 100 million copies of operating systems is not inconsistent
> with maintaining trade secrecy, but there is some reason to be dubious.
>
> Further, even if they are right, it is the source code which remains a
> trade secret, and reverse engineering a product to get at the trade
> secret is legal].
>
> 4. Because it's hard. [Well, yeah, but the potential payoff is pretty
> big too].
>
> I'm curious what people think. Has this been done, and I just haven't
> heard about it?

To offer a full-fledged Windows clone/replacement, you'd have to be able to guarantee future compatibility, and you couldn't.

A system that emulated today's Windows API could no doubt be done legally. The real question is non-legal: Will it work with the next version of MS Word (or whatever other Windows application you rely on)? Microsoft's OS will for sure. With anyone else's, it would likely be a gamble. So, other than cross-platform emulators and other special-purpose situations, I don't think such a product is likely to appear.

Ron Abramson
<abramson[_at_]hugheshubbard.com> Received on Mon Apr 28 1997 - 19:13:08 GMT