Novel had the superior product, Microsoft had the superior Marketing Department.
I had to have at least 2 certified Novel engineers (very expensive) to be a Gold Partner for Novel or I pretty much didn't exist. Microsoft sent me to free training events with free lunches, and gave me thousands of dollars worth of NFR (not for resale) software for the cost of the materials (about $300).
Small wonder they took over Novel's market share.
BTW have you noticed that every book put out by Microsoft always leaves out a little something for the next book in the series to handle? Sometimes I think they make more on training than on their software. They also change their interface just enough every time so people buy the book to relearn what they knew before. I just keep re-setting everything back to "Classic". That way the clients are much happier with upgrades.
When Apple was just a young unknown company, they stood out at events with unusual marketing as well. At one event they had an old English style double decker bus to take us back to our hotel. The guys at their booth handed me an invitation to their hospitality suite. I stuffed it in the bag with the rest of them. When we started to get hungry, we looked to see which invite we would use. Apple had rented Disneyland for the night. We never made it to the other vendors suites.
