[Rhodes22-list] Apple virtuality

[Bill Effros]

Robert,

I'm sure our personal views regarding Mr. Gates are quite similar.  His 
real skill was marketing the talents of others while destroying their 
companies for his benefit.  His ability to stifle competition, and new 
ideas, was legendary.

His current efforts at self-aggrandizement are appalling.  He could have 
done far more good by maintaining competition in the development of 
software for the benefit of producers and consumers worldwide.

My guess is that Google and others will eat his lunch.

Bill Effros

Robert Skinner wrote:
> Robert's notes interleaved --
>
> Bill Effros wrote:
>   
>> As I remember it, Microsoft bought the rights to Seattle DOS.
>>     
>
> Yup - after telling IBM that they had a x86 version of their own 
> in the works.  Seattle never knew the value of what they sold.
> Bill was, and remains a sharp dealer.
>
>   
>>  IBM
>> wanted to go with a 16-bit version of CP/M, but Digital Research was
>> unable to deliver a backwardly compatible version on a timely basis, so
>> they went with Microsoft, and forced everyone to buy new software.
>>     
>
> See: http://www.cadigital.com/kildall.htm
>
>   
>> Seattle Microsystems retained the right to sell their own version of
>> their DOS. 
>>     
>
> Trouble is, IBM cleaned up PC-DOS, and had the marketing clout to 
> push their own version thereafter, despite the superiority of 
> Kildall's CP/M 86.
>
>   
>> Apple survived only because VisiCalc ran only on the Apple.
>> Microsoft prospered only because they retained the right to sell IBM-DOS
>> as MS-DOS.  Microsoft only got this right because IBM was in the midst
>> of antitrust suits filed by the federal government.  The original PC was
>> a "poison the well" computer system designed to kill the microcomputer
>> market segment.  IBM never expected it to succeed in its own right.
>> Originally Lotus1-2-3 only worked on PCs manufactured by IBMs running
>> IBM-DOS.  Microsoft knocked it off, along with a wordprocessing program
>> to provide top-tier software for both Apple, and PC "clones".
>>
>> At least that's the way I remember it -- no time to look it up now.
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>     
>
> Bill, we agree in large measure about the sequence of events.  However,
> I regard Bill Gates as a very successful entrepreneur, not admirable
> as a person, based on personal contact in the early years of micros.
> Time has not softened my position, and I welcome the current trends
> toward a more universal platform.  Open Office 2.1 runs on both Windows
> and LINUX, produces PDF files as an optional form of output, and (so far)
> has proved a very useful substitute for Word and Excel -- and it is free.
>
> The march away from proprietary platforms continues.  A generic OS is
> key to the next couple of decades of economic growth.  Europe has
> recognized this, and it is gradually manifesting in the US.
>
> /Robert
>
>   
>> -----------------------------------------------------------
>> Robert Skinner wrote:
>>     
>>> Thank you, Ron, for the scoop on Mac virtuality.
>>>
>>> After an horrible experience trying to do some modeling
>>> on an Apple 2 in Apple BASIC, I jumped to CP/M, then
>>> MP/M, writing a task dispatcher for the latter ill-fated OS.
>>>
>>> When the PC came out using the Seattle Microsystems DOS-86
>>> (skillfully ripped off and relabeled by Gates), I was a
>>> bit concerned, having been abused by Gates' FORTRAN for
>>> CP/M.  I have had to stay on board with the MS progression
>>> of DOS to Windows because of customer's requirements for
>>> the wide range of software that runs on Windows.
>>>
>>> Windows has degenerated into a magnet for malware, and the
>>> increasingly invasive character of Windows is even more
>>> off-putting.  The lack of a secure kernel is a major
>>> design flaw -- no amount of lipstick will make that pig
>>> attractive.  I don't know how the designer of the elegant
>>> VAX VMS operating system could have allowed that.
>>>
>>> The advent of fully functional and very useful LINUX has
>>> opened a lot of doors, and the fusion of capabilities
>>> offered on the Apple platform is the icing on the cake.
>>> I wonder how long it will be before we see a universal
>>> platform and Apple's progression toward being an OS and
>>> commodity electronics shop?
>>>
>>> /Robert
>>>       
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