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From: chrisj@ut-emx.UUCP (Chris Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Credit where credit is due
Message-ID: <1276@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 20 Mar 88 06:06:23 GMT
References: <1624@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <1121@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <1750@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <3448@ece-csc.UUCP>
Organization: U.T. Austin Computation Center
Lines: 40
Keywords: window human computer interface
Summary: Apple paid Xerox and got the concepts from same place Xerox did



Paying Xerox is not necessary for Apple.  Two points:

1.  Apple hired away a number of the men responsible for creating that
interface for Xerox.  What did they do to lure them away?  They offered them
the chance to really bring their ideas to market while working with a group
of people who understood the significance of what they were doing.

Thus Apple did not steal those ideas from Xerox - they got them from the
same place Xerox did, while giving those men, in most respects, an opportunity
to do more with their ideas than their former employer Xerox ever did.

2.  Apple DID pay Xerox for those ideas even before they hired those men
away.  In the early days of development of the Mac and before, as I recall, the
Lisa was even finished, the boys at Apple knew they wanted a user interface
and also knew that they needed good ideas to base their thinking on.  So Apple
contacted Xerox, where they knew these ideas were being developed, and 
requested a tour of the labs where these concepts were being brought to life.
In exchange for the tour Apple agreed to give Xerox a substantial amount 
(I can't remember exactly how much) of its stock (non-voting shares I think)
to Xerox which was expressing interest in having some share in the young and
rapidly growing personal computer market.  Xerox accepted and a number of
Apple's key people were given a tour of those Xerox labs.     

The tour made a big impression on a number of the Xerox engineers because
the boys from Apple ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY WERE TRYING TO ACHEIVE AND
WHY!  Management, and other engineers at Xerox didn't understand as well as
the crew from Apple did.  So the group from Apple learned a lot as enthusias-
tic programmers showed off the fruits of their labors and discussed the prin-
ciples underlying them.

In short, not only did Apple get their user interface ideas (or the 
beginnings of them) from the same source as Xerox itself had acquired them,
but Xerox gained partial ownership of Apple in the process.

For those of you who would wish to believe that I'm lying through my teeth,
get yourselves a copy of "The Journey is the Reward" - the biography of 
Steve Jobs by an author whose name I regrettably cannot remember.  Not only
is it just generally very interesting but it covers this period of Apple and
Jobs' history in considerable detail.