[Tfug] Microsoft reportedly wants open source software users to pa y rolyalties

[Anthony Hess]

Yea, I was just saying in a silly way that it wasn't true that Apple stole
much of anything from Xerox even if it has been repeated around the web a
few million times.

Gates *did* say that to Jobs, but that didn't make it true.  Xerox did have
the earlier GUI, but it really wasn't like the Mac pretty much at all.
Windows, on the other hand, was much like the Mac.  Just do some digging -
besides both being GUIs and both having windows/mice etc. there wasn't a lot
in common there.  And Apple was already working on a graphical interface
before any of them had seen the PARC work anyway.

I don't think its a bad thing Apple had bad lawyers either - had the GUI
decisions and inventions of Apple been locked down then the world wouldn't
be using them in other operating systems :)

Tony

On 5/17/07, George Cohn <gwcohn at simplybits.net> wrote:
>
> Anthony Hess wrote:
>
> > Now you're just making stuff up :)
>
> I'm just quoting what I read in the book I mentioned.
>
> Xerox developed the windowing technique and the graphical interface in
> the mid '70's for their Altos.  The guys at PARC even designed and built
> their own clone of the PDP because they weren't allowed to buy one as
> Xerox had bought a smaller computer company called SDS.
>
> The line about Gates telling Jobs that "We both stole it from Xerox" is
> from the book as well.  I make no claims for the accuracy of the book,
> just reporting what I read.
>
> Xerox also invented the Ethernet that we all know and love.  They also
> developed the use of lasers to transmit data across miles of air using
> telescopes from Edmund Scientific, something that was later developed by
> other companies into the fiber optic technology that we use today.
>
> The guy that invented Ethernet left them and founded 3Com to make
> Ethernet cards.  The original licensing agreement was a one time $1,000
> payment for the rights to produce Ethernet hardware.
>
> Many of their intellectuals left them and started their own companies.
>
> Xerox didn't see the marketability of much of what they invented because
> they were focused on leasing office systems.  The laser printer was
> eventually produced but even that project was almost killed several times.
>
> And the final trivia note, the first image ever produced on a graphical
> display at Xerox was the Cookie Monster, munching on a cookie!
>
> Now, the trivia question for the MS fans, what was the code name that
> IBM used for the first PC?  ;-)
>
> George Cohn
>
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