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spewgut (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Amazing! I love the mention of the Hare Krsnas.
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
ACTUALLY... NOT QUITE THE TRUTH
Part 6 gave me a lot of problems: these things have to be copied and pasted-in such that they read in the proper order... but then there's the 500 character limit!
Paragraphs 1 and 2 had to be edited, so stuff is missing: Paragraph 2 refers to the Operating System, of course.
In Paragraph 1 ~ let's be fair to Microsoft... they did write basic BUNDLED apps but - as was said - The Mac "didn't do very much".
There should have been more apps. Why weren't there?
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 1
Oh dear! The usual urban myths and outright lies among the comments.
Xerox was a corporation built on the invention of photocopying. The idea in the schools of "a paperless office" was something frightening to Xerox... so let's hire these 'hotshots'... let them show us exactly what they mean. And an incredible assembly of computer geeks ~ from places like, yes, STANFORD (and Utah) "happened" to come together. And they envisaged a future....
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 2
But not a future that would be ours. Not if it was left up to Xerox. But the wizards at Palo Alto Research Center grew frustrated. Their vision was assigned to nowheresville. Something called 'bitmapping' had led to a kind of picture screen governed by something called 'Smalltalk' running on an 'Alto' computer, the parts of which cost some $20,000. Wanting this (and more) to become "real", they invited the computer industry to see the marvels....
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 3
Among those demonstrated for was Harvard drop-out and co-founder of young software company, Bill Gates. He didn't "get it". Couldn't see it. His hopes were pinned on standardizing a Quick Dirty Operating System and getting that everywhere.
But high-school drop-out and co-founder of one of the biggest players in the growing PC market, our Steve Jobs ~ now, he got the vision....
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 4
Even if it took a couple of minutes ~ and him so "blown away" by the Graphical User Interface that he misseds the rest.... Yes. Apple would make this a reality. Okay, it didn't cost much initially (claims are made of $1m) but it did involve hiring and paying those wizards who wanted to help make it a commercial proposition, usable by a secretary. That took about 5 years and the machine which eventually became the 'Macintosh' still cost $6,000....
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 5
That person routinely credited with inventing the Macintosh... didn't ~ for starters, his 'Macintosh' [the name was his] did not use a mouse! The one that became 'The Mac' had many fathers.
It might have died in infancy if another Xerox wizard hadn't founded Adobe, having invented a way to print the picture desk.... The publishing industry attached to the design community would be transformed out of recognition. But not much thanks to Bill Gates.
HughHue (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
XEROX, Apple, Microsoft... THE TRUTH ~ Part 6
Gates Allen's was one of three software companies brought in by a too-trusting Steve Jobs to write applications for the new wonder machine. How strange they failed.
But it was Microsoft who would succumb to a terrible temptation ~ what if, instead... we just take this? And make it ours.
Was young Bill encouraged, even given a reassuring pat on the back from [return key]
HAL?_
MarianAmy (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Humbling
mslpm08 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
amazing |
