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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!amdahl!drivax!holloway
From: holloway@drivax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Information (well, really MAC Roms)
Message-ID: <891@drivax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Feb-87 12:09:48 EST
Article-I.D.: drivax.891
Posted: Fri Feb  6 12:09:48 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Feb-87 06:36:47 EST
References: <870128221041.000016FD.AGDZ.MA@UMass> <12056@brunix.UUCP>
Reply-To: holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway)
Organization: Digitalis Research, Inc.
Lines: 34

In article <12056@brunix.UUCP> rjd@nancy.UUCP (Rob DeMillo) writes:
>If the Magic Sack is such a hit, and their really is a market, then it
>is worth someone's time to sit down, rewrite the ROMs (from scratch),
>and include it in the cartridge instead of sending people all over 
>creation looking for Apple's ROM's just to keep Apple happy....

I think you could expect a call from Apple's lawyers _real_soon_ about
their "look and feel" patents, i.e., the way the entire windowing system
works. I think they're full of s**t, but I'm (admittedly) biased.

You have to remember that the Macintosh is not (yet) an "open" system,
which means that for the most part, you have only Apple providing regular
hardware updates.

But with the new "Open" Mac, maybe we'll see some room for improvement.
Although it must go so much against Apple's grain to provide specs for their
machine, that they'll probably fight any clone...

A couple of years back, one of the managers at Apple said, to an InfoWorld
reporter, that Apple saw the rush of MacPaint clones on other machines,
pull-down menus, meeses, the whole bit, as a vindication of the Macintosh
concept.

You might conclude that Apple wanted to set an industry standard with their
Macintosh, right? Not so, since they soon started threatening those same
MacPaint clones (most for the IBM-PC) with lawsuits unless they changed
their style.

Apple wants to be the industry standard, and it doesn't want competition,
and it will use whatever money it takes to squash anyone who comes out
with anything similar to what they've done.
-- 
....!ucbvax!hplabs!amdahl!drivax!holloway
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