Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwvax!tank!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple code broken - pisses me off!
Message-ID: <126900028@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Jun 89 16:03:00 GMT
References: <4588@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Lines: 28
Nf-ID: #R:ucdavis.ucdavis.edu:4588:p.cs.uiuc.edu:126900028:000:1473
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Jun 15 11:03:00 1989


/* Written 11:26 am  Jun 12, 1989 by mnkonar@manyjars.SRC.Honeywell.COM in p.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.mac */
> Xerox brought out the Star workstation.  It was way ahead of
> its time and predates the Lisa by about a year or two.  They
> were the leader in graphical interfaces.  What killed them was
> not that they prevented others from cloning their technology,
> it was poor marketing....

This is a distortion.  Here are some reasons you are omitting:

(1) Xerox wanted to sell its machine for $15-$20,000, Apple wanted to
sell its for $10,000.  This is outrageous for a machine whose biggest
feature was fancy word processing, typically relegated to secretaries.
Remember, the PC did not take off until visicalc/lotus appeared,
appealing to (high-paid) mid-level managers.  In both cases, the
products were aimed at the wrong audience for the price.

(1) Both these systems are completely closed architectures: no
compilers for sale.  The Xerox DLion was the same speed as a VAX 750,
and included virtual memory.  In 1981, $15,000 was an incredible buy!
But you couldn't PROGRAM the d*mn thing!

*so* the moral is:  Companies that try to keep things proprietary
forever eventually die horrible deaths.  Apple probably has 5 years
before someone has the guts to blow them away in court.  After all,
didn't fujitsu blow IBM away in court, over the sale of the IBM OS?
Didn't IBM get creamed in the 1960's over their disk-drive interfaces?
Apple, it's only a matter of time!