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

[Stephen Hooper]

On 5/17/07, Anthony Hess <runenfool at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

I think this is still the subject of much debate.  Apple did hire
people who had worked on the  Xerox GUI before the Lisa.

> 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.

The Lisa interface was very much like the Xerox Star (as pictured).

The mouse was also something most people attribute to Xerox.

> 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 think one thing I would like answered in that case, is what happened
between the time the Apple III+ was introduced (1981), and when the
Lisa (1983) was introduced (both Steve Jobs' projects (I think)), that
would suddenly lead the concept of a GUI.

BTW, Jobs seems to have visited PARC in 1979 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star).