QDOS became MS-DOS and not Windows.
It still got its ass handed to it. Microsoft won because they got the OEMs.
Later I tried Warp, but when Windows 95 came around, it was better too. Less stable, but better in other ways.
I like this article. It communicates the nuance and complexity of the issues at the time.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/information-tec...
> Probably one of the worst and most egregious is Microsoft's use of a "per processor" fee in the 90's which they only stopped when the government forced them to. If you were an OEM like Dell or HP, and sold Windows on any computers, you had to pay Microsoft for a copy of Windows on all computers you sold, even ones without Windows.
> This anti-competitive move meant alternative operating systems, like BeOS, or OS2/Warp, or even Linux weren't really an option. BeOS died, not on any technical merits, but because Microsoft forced it out via other means. Linux only survived because its openness made it hard to kill.