> By the late nineties the phrase "No one has ever been fired for buying Microsoft products" was a very popular phrase.

This is the second time recently I've seen someone on HN refer to this expression with a Microsoft branding.

The late nineties are a little too early for me to have had any awareness of technology politics. I never heard the expression you describe.

I did hear, many times, "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". It seems odd that that would have been a later form of the expression than "nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft".