The Mac was introduced at Flint Center for the Performing Arts on the Campus of De Anza college -- a few blocks from Apple headquarters.
The Flint Theater seats over 2,000 people in its balcony, mezzanine and orchestra sections.
The crowd was dominated by press, computer enthusiasts, computer dealers, Apple employees... it was not "a room of Apple investors" -- I was there!
So was I (near the back, right side main floor), invited as an Apple employee. When I got home that night, my family smiled indulgently, expecting I'd calm down in a bit. (Except for the boy, who was a bit young to care.) Heh. They're still Mac users today.
Pretty much all I did as far as helping the Mac effort, being in the Apple// division then, was help to develop and sell products whose income kept the doors open until the Mac finally took off. They only serve, etc.
I theorize the next iMac will have an ultra-thin screen and the electronics will migrate into the base (which won't be massive, but somewhat similar to the "iPad Air" styling. In other words, a slim wedge).
How exactly did Microsoft gain access to Apple code? What ARE you talking about?
To expand upon Tallest Skil's response, Steve Jobs wanted Microsoft support for the Mac when it was announced. At the time, Microsoft was really nowhere in the pantheon of productivity application developers. It offered Microsoft Word, a word processor that ran in MS-DOS graphics mode, and Multiplan, a spreadsheet. However, both were decent enough applications but they also both labored in the shadows of much more popular competitors.
Gates saw the Mac as his opportunity to bring Word to full flower. He ported Word to the Mac. He also ported Multiplan to the Mac. However, the real get was Microsoft BASIC. Jobs wanted Microsoft BASIC ported to the Mac so badly that he knifed a superior version of BASIC written by Apple in favor of the Microsoft product. Jobs also allowed Microsoft to see the Macintosh's code and to use it in the development of Windows 1.0.
Windows 1.0 really sucked, but Microsoft made substantial improvements with the release of Windows 2.0. However, Apple objected and took Microsoft to court. Microsoft's defense was that its license to use Macintosh code was in perpetuity. Apple claimed that the license was restricted to Window 1.0. Microsoft had no legal right to use Apple code in subsequent versions of Windows. The courts agreed with Microsoft and rejected Apple's claims.
In the defence of MS & Android, the same could be said for them.
Of course that's simply impossible for "Android" since it's not been around long enough (and it's neither a computer nor a company--talk about apples and oranges!). But forgetting that, it's just not the same. Perhaps one could say that they have been "forcing the world to settle" or "forcing the world to comply." Apple, in innovating and embracing new technologies and innovations, has been forcing the industry to follow Apple's lead, or risk irrelevance and failure. The same cannot be said of "MS & Android."
[OK. I see that apparently you were being sarcastic.]
The really important thing to remember about Steve Jobs and Apple is the strategic importance of destroying your own best products. The secret that Apple carries is this willingness. The number of innovative products that Apple has made obsolete is the real legacy of the company. Some people may buy Apple computers, but they are nothing more than an important hobby for this company. The Mac is a legacy that Apple is willing to let go of in search of how to make a better product. Microsoft has never been willing to make a product that could kill Excel, Word or Windows. Apple has killed the vast majority of it's products and continues to do so. That is the legacy that Steve Jobs brought back to Apple It lives on in the company, and it gives Apple it's secret advantage over the other giants of the tech sector.
This is certainly true. Apple's willingness to cannibalize and displace their own best products is the biggest factor about Apple that "forces change." This is not a technology or business skill which is why tech and business people have such a hard time seeing it, muchness appreciating or understanding it.
Before the Macintosh most PC users were using Command Line Interfaces, after its launch to now, most people using the Graphic User Interface.
Microsoft Word and Excel were originally created for the Macintosh; Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect were already well entrenched on the IBM PC. Macintosh inspired Bill Gates and Microsoft to create Windows. No Macintosh, no Office, No Windows, maybe even no Microsoft?
Macintosh together with Pagemaker and the laserwriter printer helped to drive the concept of Desktop Publishing, revolutionising the media print industry.
The Macintosh, Quicktime, Final Cut Pro etc have helped to really drive multimedia on computers, doing for photos and video what Pagemaker did for the print industry. Now editing videos and photos on the computer are as easy as editing words or pages.
Only one or two PCs used USB before Apple introduced the iMac. Now USB ports are ubiquitous on PCs.
Apple introduced the Macbook Air to howls of derision from some in the PC industry. Now Intel has modelled the Ultrabook specification on the Macbook Air concept and every man, his mother and their dog are falling over each other to imitating the Macbook Air and other Apple laptops.
Yes, the Macintosh has definitely forced change in the world.
Completely agree, and you can add to that list:
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
• Apple built the first digital camera as we know them today (the Dycam came to market first but was ridiculously limited and grayscale) prompting Time Magazine to name it one of Time's 100 greatest and most influential gadgets from 1923 to present when it came out. It easily connected to the Mac and just worked.
• Macintosh pushed the smaller, 3.5 inch floppy, made it popular, then removed it (to great criticism), and pushed the CD, made that popular.
• Macintosh offered real plug and play, forcing Microsoft's plug and pray strategy which has taken forever to make work properly.
Pretty sure the world at large is apathetic towards the Mac, great as it may be. Hyperbolic headline.
Reply quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Just talking about the hardware for a moment. Over the years if you look at what a PC laptop looks like a few months after any new MacBook I think you would have found the manufacturers copied Apple's design as closely as they could. I have to double take when looking at the very occasional PC Laptop I see at an airport these days (amongst the sea of glowing white Apple logos) as the design of every PC Laptop is almost identical to a MBP.
I guess the question is, were the crapware makers' customers desirous of a Mac, driving the need for the copying ... or were these manufacturers just assuming their customers were? Either way I'd say your claim of apathy, in design at least, is misguided since clearly PC laptops change all the time to look as much like a Mac as they can.
Every time a crap product that copied Apple confuses us, somewhere a MacBook Pro, Air, iPad, and iPhone cry.
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
Interesting, I didn't know that. Any particular model you're thinking of, as I can't find mention of any Mac with ethernet built in (via AAUI-15) earlier than the Quadra 700, which was released in 1991.
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowley
Interesting, I didn't know that. Any particular model you're thinking of, as I can't find mention of any Mac with ethernet built in (via AAUI-15) earlier than the Quadra 700, which was released in 1991.
Sorry, I should have specified MacOS, although, I must mention that, though the Quadra 700 was, as you say, the first to feature an Ethernet connector built-in in 1991 (still way before the PC world universally "discovered it" years later when they got around to including the connector in all PCs), MacOS had built-in ethernet support since 1987, allowing the Macintosh II to natively offer ethernet through its NUBUS slots, in Apple's EtherTalk package. If you'll remember the Macintosh II had most features available only through its NUBUS cards, including the graphics.
Originally the Mac was supposed to have Token Ring, but it wasn't ready, so they developed the wonderful AppleTalk. By 1987, ethernet was winning as the standard, so they had included native ethernet built into MacOS and began offering the EtherTalk NUBUS package with the Macintosh II. Because ethernet was built into MacOS, you could use a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge on older Macs to connect them to EtherTalk Macs. If I remember correctly my Mac SE back in 1989 came with an ethernet card already inside the expansion slot, though to be fair, it was pre-installed by the shop and not Apple. I could be wrong.
Also, it was the Powerbook 500 who was the first laptop with an ethernet adapter built-in in 1994. Apple also pioneered on the laptop front with palm rests, pointing devices, track pads, all common items today.
The really important thing to remember about Steve Jobs and Apple is the strategic importance of destroying your own best products. The secret that Apple carries is this willingness. The number of innovative products that Apple has made obsolete is the real legacy of the company. Some people may buy Apple computers, but they are nothing more than an important hobby for this company. The Mac is a legacy that Apple is willing to let go of in search of how to make a better product. Microsoft has never been willing to make a product that could kill Excel, Word or Windows. Apple has killed the vast majority of it's products and continues to do so. That is the legacy that Steve Jobs brought back to Apple It lives on in the company, and it gives Apple it's secret advantage over the other giants of the tech sector.
Sorry, I should have specified MacOS, although, I must mention that, though the Quadra 700 was, as you say, the first to feature an Ethernet connector built-in in 1991 (still way before the PC world universally "discovered it" years later when they got around to including the connector in all PCs), MacOS had built-in ethernet support since 1987, allowing the Macintosh II to natively offer ethernet through its NUBUS slots, in Apple's EtherTalk package. If you'll remember the Macintosh II had most features available only through its NUBUS cards, including the graphics.
Originally the Mac was supposed to have Token Ring, but it wasn't ready, so they developed the wonderful AppleTalk. By 1987, ethernet was winning as the standard, so they had included native ethernet built into MacOS and began offering the EtherTalk NUBUS package with the Macintosh II. Because ethernet was built into MacOS, you could use a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge on older Macs to connect them to EtherTalk Macs. If I remember correctly my Mac SE back in 1989 came with an ethernet card already inside the expansion slot, though to be fair, it was pre-installed by the shop and not Apple. I could be wrong.
Also, it was the Powerbook 500 who was the first laptop with an ethernet adapter built-in in 1994. Apple also pioneered on the laptop front with palm rests, pointing devices, track pads, all common items today.
Thanks for clarifying, that's all very interesting. I remember an interview with Jobs where he mentions being almost completely oblivious to Ethernet when he saw it at PARC because he was so taken with the GUI. Good to know that it didn't take them long to put right that oversight.
Just remembered all my Apple computers: first an Apple //e clone, then an Apple IIGS, a Quadra 605, an iBook, a white iMac and now the one I have - wonderful times!
I wouldn't dispute much of that (though as always, saying that change has a single source is normally betraying a bias).
But "the world" does not equal the PC hardware industry, and Apple being influential and widely copied does not equal them "forcing" anything.
I'm not knocking Apple, they're great, and clearly a very important player in computing and technology. But they didn't "force" the "world" to "change". It's an OTT headline.
When Steve Jobs got on stage for the iPhone did he say that the Mac had changed the world? No, check the transcript, he said it changed the computer industry.
"Apple's Macintosh, a leader in the computer industry for 30 years" - much more acceptable and a realistic headline that still does good service to Apple.
I'm thinking "extrapolation" isn't your strong suit....?
It's a pretty easy step to go from "changed the computer industry" to "changed the world", considering how world-changing the computer industry has been. Logic dictates: If the computer industry changed the world, and Apple changed the computer industry, then......? Yes, therefore, Apple changed the world.
As for your adjusted headline. Leading the computer industry is equal to defining the trends and directions which ultimately influence how our world ends up being changed. And using the word "forced" definitely has context where Apple is concerned. Time and again the "industry" is pulled kicking and screaming from their complacent comfort zones to ultimately embrace what Apple has led -- yet again -- with. But not without a ton of arm twisting and coercion in many cases.
The list of extraordinary game-changers can be summarized easily. iMac. MacBook Air. (iPod. iPhone. iPad.)
That doesn't include numerous devices (e.g. Newton), GUI's, ecosystems (defining their very importance by example!), standards (operating systems, communications protocols, ports), and countless other innovations.
If that isn't defining the direction of "world change", what is?
Comments
Just for historical accuracy...
The Mac was introduced at Flint Center for the Performing Arts on the Campus of De Anza college -- a few blocks from Apple headquarters.
The Flint Theater seats over 2,000 people in its balcony, mezzanine and orchestra sections.
The crowd was dominated by press, computer enthusiasts, computer dealers, Apple employees... it was not "a room of Apple investors" -- I was there!
So was I (near the back, right side main floor), invited as an Apple employee. When I got home that night, my family smiled indulgently, expecting I'd calm down in a bit. (Except for the boy, who was a bit young to care.) Heh. They're still Mac users today.
Pretty much all I did as far as helping the Mac effort, being in the Apple// division then, was help to develop and sell products whose income kept the doors open until the Mac finally took off. They only serve, etc.
I theorize the next iMac will have an ultra-thin screen and the electronics will migrate into the base (which won't be massive, but somewhat similar to the "iPad Air" styling. In other words, a slim wedge).
Gates saw the Mac as his opportunity to bring Word to full flower. He ported Word to the Mac. He also ported Multiplan to the Mac. However, the real get was Microsoft BASIC. Jobs wanted Microsoft BASIC ported to the Mac so badly that he knifed a superior version of BASIC written by Apple in favor of the Microsoft product. Jobs also allowed Microsoft to see the Macintosh's code and to use it in the development of Windows 1.0.
Windows 1.0 really sucked, but Microsoft made substantial improvements with the release of Windows 2.0. However, Apple objected and took Microsoft to court. Microsoft's defense was that its license to use Macintosh code was in perpetuity. Apple claimed that the license was restricted to Window 1.0. Microsoft had no legal right to use Apple code in subsequent versions of Windows. The courts agreed with Microsoft and rejected Apple's claims.
In the defence of MS & Android, the same could be said for them.
Of course that's simply impossible for "Android" since it's not been around long enough (and it's neither a computer nor a company--talk about apples and oranges!). But forgetting that, it's just not the same. Perhaps one could say that they have been "forcing the world to settle" or "forcing the world to comply." Apple, in innovating and embracing new technologies and innovations, has been forcing the industry to follow Apple's lead, or risk irrelevance and failure. The same cannot be said of "MS & Android."
[OK. I see that apparently you were being sarcastic.]
The really important thing to remember about Steve Jobs and Apple is the strategic importance of destroying your own best products. The secret that Apple carries is this willingness. The number of innovative products that Apple has made obsolete is the real legacy of the company. Some people may buy Apple computers, but they are nothing more than an important hobby for this company. The Mac is a legacy that Apple is willing to let go of in search of how to make a better product. Microsoft has never been willing to make a product that could kill Excel, Word or Windows. Apple has killed the vast majority of it's products and continues to do so. That is the legacy that Steve Jobs brought back to Apple It lives on in the company, and it gives Apple it's secret advantage over the other giants of the tech sector.
This is certainly true. Apple's willingness to cannibalize and displace their own best products is the biggest factor about Apple that "forces change." This is not a technology or business skill which is why tech and business people have such a hard time seeing it, muchness appreciating or understanding it.
"Detractors question why Apple is removing any hardware they are familiar with, again failing to understand what innovation really means."
Best line (maybe, ever)
Apathetic or not, it certainly has forced change.
Yes, the Macintosh has definitely forced change in the world.
Completely agree, and you can add to that list:
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
• Apple built the first digital camera as we know them today (the Dycam came to market first but was ridiculously limited and grayscale) prompting Time Magazine to name it one of Time's 100 greatest and most influential gadgets from 1923 to present when it came out. It easily connected to the Mac and just worked.
• Macintosh pushed the smaller, 3.5 inch floppy, made it popular, then removed it (to great criticism), and pushed the CD, made that popular.
• Macintosh offered real plug and play, forcing Microsoft's plug and pray strategy which has taken forever to make work properly.
And the list goes on and on and on...
Pretty sure the world at large is apathetic towards the Mac, great as it may be. Hyperbolic headline.
Reply quote:
Just talking about the hardware for a moment. Over the years if you look at what a PC laptop looks like a few months after any new MacBook I think you would have found the manufacturers copied Apple's design as closely as they could. I have to double take when looking at the very occasional PC Laptop I see at an airport these days (amongst the sea of glowing white Apple logos) as the design of every PC Laptop is almost identical to a MBP.
I guess the question is, were the crapware makers' customers desirous of a Mac, driving the need for the copying ... or were these manufacturers just assuming their customers were? Either way I'd say your claim of apathy, in design at least, is misguided since clearly PC laptops change all the time to look as much like a Mac as they can.
Every time a crap product that copied Apple confuses us, somewhere a MacBook Pro, Air, iPad, and iPhone cry.
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
Interesting, I didn't know that. Any particular model you're thinking of, as I can't find mention of any Mac with ethernet built in (via AAUI-15) earlier than the Quadra 700, which was released in 1991.
Do you (or anyone) know if there’s a copy of that initial agreement anywhere online to read?
Apple stole it from NeXT /s
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>Tallest Skil</strong> <a href="/t/161738/apples-macintosh-has-forced-the-world-to-change-for-30-years/40#post_2462620"><img alt="View Post" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" /></a><br />
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Do you (or anyone) know if there’s a copy of that initial agreement anywhere online to read?</p>
</div>
</div>
<p><br />
Might be in here somewhere TS:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp.</p>
Originally Posted by Numenorean
• Macintosh had ethernet built in since 1987. PCs and MS universally "discovered it" in the 90s.
Quote:
Interesting, I didn't know that. Any particular model you're thinking of, as I can't find mention of any Mac with ethernet built in (via AAUI-15) earlier than the Quadra 700, which was released in 1991.
Sorry, I should have specified MacOS, although, I must mention that, though the Quadra 700 was, as you say, the first to feature an Ethernet connector built-in in 1991 (still way before the PC world universally "discovered it" years later when they got around to including the connector in all PCs), MacOS had built-in ethernet support since 1987, allowing the Macintosh II to natively offer ethernet through its NUBUS slots, in Apple's EtherTalk package. If you'll remember the Macintosh II had most features available only through its NUBUS cards, including the graphics.
Originally the Mac was supposed to have Token Ring, but it wasn't ready, so they developed the wonderful AppleTalk. By 1987, ethernet was winning as the standard, so they had included native ethernet built into MacOS and began offering the EtherTalk NUBUS package with the Macintosh II. Because ethernet was built into MacOS, you could use a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge on older Macs to connect them to EtherTalk Macs. If I remember correctly my Mac SE back in 1989 came with an ethernet card already inside the expansion slot, though to be fair, it was pre-installed by the shop and not Apple. I could be wrong.
Also, it was the Powerbook 500 who was the first laptop with an ethernet adapter built-in in 1994. Apple also pioneered on the laptop front with palm rests, pointing devices, track pads, all common items today.
The WikiPedia entry that you intended to post is this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp.
What a pile of steaming crap.
You used "it's" incorrectly twice, genius.
The "Apple never invented anything" meme. Backed by LOLPICS.
I've never heard that one. There are really people who say that? Have they never heard of Steve Wozniak?!
Just remembered all my Apple computers: first an Apple //e clone, then an Apple IIGS, a Quadra 605, an iBook, a white iMac and now the one I have - wonderful times!
I wouldn't dispute much of that (though as always, saying that change has a single source is normally betraying a bias).
But "the world" does not equal the PC hardware industry, and Apple being influential and widely copied does not equal them "forcing" anything.
I'm not knocking Apple, they're great, and clearly a very important player in computing and technology. But they didn't "force" the "world" to "change". It's an OTT headline.
When Steve Jobs got on stage for the iPhone did he say that the Mac had changed the world? No, check the transcript, he said it changed the computer industry.
"Apple's Macintosh, a leader in the computer industry for 30 years" - much more acceptable and a realistic headline that still does good service to Apple.
I'm thinking "extrapolation" isn't your strong suit....?
It's a pretty easy step to go from "changed the computer industry" to "changed the world", considering how world-changing the computer industry has been. Logic dictates: If the computer industry changed the world, and Apple changed the computer industry, then......? Yes, therefore, Apple changed the world.
As for your adjusted headline. Leading the computer industry is equal to defining the trends and directions which ultimately influence how our world ends up being changed. And using the word "forced" definitely has context where Apple is concerned. Time and again the "industry" is pulled kicking and screaming from their complacent comfort zones to ultimately embrace what Apple has led -- yet again -- with. But not without a ton of arm twisting and coercion in many cases.
The list of extraordinary game-changers can be summarized easily. iMac. MacBook Air. (iPod. iPhone. iPad.)
That doesn't include numerous devices (e.g. Newton), GUI's, ecosystems (defining their very importance by example!), standards (operating systems, communications protocols, ports), and countless other innovations.
If that isn't defining the direction of "world change", what is?
Just saying...