
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 19, 1994                   TAG: 9407210027
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOFTWARE DOOR JUST MAY BE TOO RUSTY TO OPEN

For the small computer-software companies that for years have been been dwarfed by industry giant Microsoft Corp., the door providing entry to big-name hardware manufacturers was unlocked by Friday's antitrust agreement.

Whether the door actually will open - or is rusted shut from years of disuse - remains to be seen.

"It's going to be very difficult for someone to come in and push Microsoft out of the picture," said Tim Duff, general manager of Cherrytree Software in Roanoke. "They've set the standards which a lot of companies work within."

Despite the new openness, Microsoft's dominance in the industry has been felt so strongly for so many years that other companies are going to find it difficult to carve niches, Duff said. He compared it to the way "Coke" has become synonymous with "soft drink" or "Kleenex" with "facial tissue."

"When you think of DOS, you think of MS-DOS," he said.

Although an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of all personal computers run on Microsoft programs, companies including IBM and Novell Inc. also market operating systems similar in function and cost to the MS-DOS/Windows combination.

The comparable cost and capabilities haven't meant much, however, as long as hardware manufacturers have had such strong incentives to work with Microsoft, said John Hastings, president of the Atlanta-based American Computer Exchange.

This weekend's agreement opens the door for these other companies, Hastings said, but it will take at least several months for any effects to trickle down to retailers or consumers.

And the increased competition probably won't mean much to the average consumer, said Bart Wilner, general manager and owner of Entr Computer Center in Roanoke.

The deal reached Friday will not affect the way local dealers do business, Wilner said; factories will not suddenly stop manufacturing or begin recalling computers carrying MS-DOS and Windows.

"If I was a manufacturing competitor of Microsoft, I would think this was a good day," Wilner said. "But the reality of things today on the marketplace is that things haven't changed."

by CNB