keyboard politics [Was: Key bindings proposal]

[Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com>]

  Uday Reddy wrote:
 > Microsoft never made any complete systems.  They started out as 
sellers of
 > compilers and made their name as the *suppliers* of DOS to IBM.  When 
IBM's
 > monopoly ended and the PC became an open architecture, they became 
suppliers to
 > us.  So, they do not have ownership of the PC or the keyboard that 
goes with
 > it.  Their assertion of ownership to a pair of modifier keys, whose 
idea has
 > been long in existence before their birth even, is illegitimate.


the way i'm guessing how the Win logo became common in PC keyboard is this:

Microsoft invented the key and logo (probably influenced by Apple), and 
place it on the keyboard they manufacture, as well integrated in their 
OS for use of that key. Perhaps in a year or two, other keyboard 
manufactures, in competition with Microsoft's hardware department, also 
wanted to have that key, because MS's OS is very popular.

i'm not sure if there's anything explicitly sinister about how it came 
to became so popular.

keyboard manufactures do not have to make keyboard with that key or 
logo. Daz, Happy Hacker keyboards, Optimus, Kinesis, sell versions of 
keyboard that don't have the win logo. ( photo & link: 
http://xahlee.org/emacs/keyboards_hacker_idiocy.html )

though it'd be nice if someone knows about this history and tell us.

  Xah