Editing Compaq (section)

====Compaq DeskPro 386====
[[File:Compaq Deskpro 386 16Mhz.jpg|150px|thumb|Compaq Deskpro 386 16Mhz]]In 1986, Compaq introduced the [[Compaq Deskpro 386|Deskpro 386]], the first PC based on [[Intel]]'s new [[i386|80386]] microprocessor.{{r|lewis19891022}}<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.techhive.com/article/126692/greatest_pcs_of_all_time.html?page=9 |title = PC World – The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time |date = 11 August 2006 |access-date = 2008-01-31 |archive-date = 2013-07-25 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130725093306/http://www.techhive.com/article/126692/greatest_pcs_of_all_time.html?page=9 |url-status = dead }}</ref> [[Bill Gates]] of Microsoft later said<ref name="millergates19970325">{{Cite interview |last=Gates |first=Bill |interviewer=Michael J. Miller |title=Interview: Bill Gates, Microsoft |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVDB2C8IJRYC&pg=PA230 |date=1997-03-25 |pages=230-235 |magazine=[[PC Magazine]] |volume=16 |issue=6}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|the folks at IBM didn't trust the 386. They didn't think it would get done. So we encouraged Compaq to go ahead and just do a 386 machine. That was the first time people started to get a sense that it wasn't just IBM setting the standards, that this industry had a life of its own, and that companies like Compaq and Intel were in there doing new things that people should pay attention to.}}

The Compaq 386 computer marked the first CPU change to the PC platform that was not initiated by IBM.{{r|lewis19891022}} Compaq had concluded, according to ''PC'', that it could do so because "IBM's DOS standard is now bigger than IBM"; IBM could not make changes to the PC architecture it had created to hurt Compaq, without also obsoleting millions of real IBM PCs.<ref name="howard19861125">{{Cite magazine |last=Howard |first=Bill |date=1986-11-25 |title=386 Compatibility: What, Me Worry? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwLE_FWJ-_0C&pg=PA141 |access-date=2024-11-01 |magazine=PC |page=141}}</ref> An IBM-made 386 machine reached the market almost a year later,<ref name="lewis19891022">{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Peter H. |date=1989-10-22 |title=THE EXECUTIVE COMPUTER; The Race to Market a 486 Machine |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/22/business/the-executive-computer-the-race-to-market-a-486-machine.html |access-date=2020-05-20 |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited }}</ref> but by that time Compaq was the leading 386 supplier with 28% market share, compared to IBM's 16%.{{r|bane19881120}}

For the first three months after announcement, the Deskpro 386 shipped with Windows/386. This was a version of Windows 2.1 adapted for the 80386 processor. Support for the [[virtual 8086 mode]] was added by Compaq engineers.  (Windows, running on top of the MS-DOS operating system, would not become a popular "operating environment" until at least the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990.)