Published February 09, 2000
IBM fiercely protected their copyrights, but Compaq and Phoenix were able to legally reverse-engineer the small bit of proprietary code (BIOS) that made “IBM-compatible clones” possible.
There are many “could have been” stories in the evolution of small computers, but IBM contested and lost. A scant four years from its inception of the PC, IBM was, astonishingly, a non-player.
An already bad design further degraded with multiple clones. Fewer than a dozen companies tarried in different directions, and the less-than-best implementation won. Microsoft and Intel’s sufficient clout guide the major thrust of the PC offerings.
The Macintosh project began before the PC and has remained. Apple Computer Company hired Jeff Raskin, from Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) to implement an all-graphics-based computer. PARC was an academic ivory tower that brain-stormed expensive, experimental machines that were unrealistic to build. But their brilliant ideas were very advanced yet irreverently rejected by Xerox management for practical adaptations.
Some of those ideas would germinate into real products like Ethernet, PostScript, Laser Printing, Networking, and Object Oriented design. In every segment, the practical uses were other companies’ investments and reward.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) was the pinnacle jewel. Raskin’s approach was that computers should be full-time graphics machines. The screen should exactly represent the output, later coined “What You See is What You Get.” The ultimate benefit is “Ease of Use,” the objective design architecture of the Macintosh.
Jobs, at considerable urging from Raskin, visited PARC and later won introductions for his people to a second visit. It was magically the right moment for concept to merge with a serious development undertaking. Apple traded Xerox stock, of about one million dollars, for implementation of the GUI idea, an amicable and equitable deal. Apple did not steal from Xerox as has been widely intimated.
Steve Jobs, the wealthy, successful innovator of Apple, was obsessed by himself and, at the time, had the people-skills of Genghis Khan. Although he was the political chief, founder of the company, his Lisa development team threw him out. “Go over there and work with them [the Macintosh team],” they told him.
Xerox’s ALTO, the machine used to demonstrate their ideas, was never sold to anyone. From it, a significantly different design emerged at Apple Computer. No code from Xerox or the ALTO was used in the Mac. The Star, Xerox’s document management machine, was not a personal computer and only limitedly leased.
Jobs alienated Raskin by taking over his job, and they parted. One of Job’s many regiments was to establish conformity. At his direction, programmers painstakingly identified useful patterns then structured rules for the interactions of the design, so that programmers could later write code that would cohesively integrate. This is a testament to the Mac’s backwards compatibility without the need to upgrade all software for each release of the operating system.
Apple’s new contributions included the menu bar, shortcut keys, resizing and dynamically updated windows, disc/trash/printer icons, and more. The Mac had to be engineered completely new, languages, limitations, and processes.
Others from the Xerox (PARC) joined Apple. Together, the workable graphical users interface became the architecture of “the computer for the rest of us.” It would be copied (and stolen) by companies that would exceed Apple’s (then) dominance.
Microsoft accommodated Apple’s need for programs that would run on their new baby. Bill Gates was genuinely astounded by the Mac and its capabilities. For leverage, Gates withheld their software for the Mac until Apple conceded to Microsoft’s conditions.
Apple reluctantly agreed to abandon their MacBasic development, nearly completed, so that Microsoft could sell theirs. Later, Apple’s Bill Atkinson created HyperCard, an object-based card-stack programming and educational tool. Microsoft replicated the two Apple designs (without compensation) and called theirs VisualBasic for PCs.
Microsoft’s programmers set about to model the Apple-developed constructs in their own operating system. Unlike Apple’s original engineering for the Macintosh, Microsoft copied procedure names, variable names, API routines and most of the Mac-specific processes.
Apple Computer sued Microsoft over the theft of the “look and feel” of their operating system, and Apple lost. Windows became Microsoft’s flagship breadwinner, a technically poor copy of the original.
Each of the three founders, of IBM, Microsoft and Apple, characteristically impacted this industry. Steve Jobs, the firestorm of charismatic egomania, visionary kid, has returned to Apple. Not for want of wealth, or appearance of power, Jobs seems to be focused upon making a difference, making products that are “insanely great.” Fail or succeed, Apple travails using its own resources.
The Microsoft business model is to sell the most, not make the best. There is no such thing as friendly competition for this company, or sharing/ cooperation outside its walls. Their status quo is for perpetual industry dominance, having been legally adjudged as a monopoly.
Doing business with Microsoft is not an “arms length, good faith” relationship. Understanding their fixed self-serving motivations is to characterize them as amoral, not evil. Their lot could never be considered trustworthy. Wins for the company are losses for the industry as progress is slowed. Superior products are driven down or out, productivity reduced.
Microsoft’s direction is unlikely to change with Bill Gates stepping down as C.E.O. into his new self-made division. His insecure but formidable influence is as ruthless as will profit him. Any means at winning are his credo. Admire him for his accomplishments or not, Gates’s direction is not for good products, ideals, or improving the world that he and his businesses repressively influence.
Would-be winners abhor losers, but few, anymore, agree that is the yardstick for success. Time will tell.