Xref: utzoo comp.sys.apple:5237 comp.sys.ibm.pc:14223 comp.windows.misc:441
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!upvax!stevewa
From: stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Apple Lawsuit (was BOYCOTT APPLE, etc.)
Message-ID: <394@upvax.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 88 20:52:56 GMT
References: <292@unicom.UUCP> <663@csm9a.UUCP> <4283@dandelion.CI.COM> <13520@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <453@xroads.UUCP>
Reply-To: stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward)
Organization: University of Portland, Portland, OR
Lines: 53
Keywords: Microsoft, HP New Wave, Xerox, Lawsuit
Summary: users lose out...

In article <453@xroads.UUCP> tgm@xroads.UUCP (Sloan Tash) writes:
>Wouldn't that just be a shame (if Apple won..). The other companies would
>have
>to come up with their own ideas. Given that Apple did take the concept from
>Xerox, they developed it far beyond anything Xerox did. If the other
>companies
>want to take the same ideas that Apple started with, I don't think there
>would
>be a problem.. It's that they want to take Apple's ideas straight across.

I disagree with your stand on a couple of points...

1.  Usually it's good that individual companies come up with alternative
    solutions to a given "problem", but when you're trying to set up a
    STANDARD it's not such a good idea.  Remember what happened about 12
    years ago with VCRs?  Two different companies came up with two different
    solutions to the same problem, namely VHS and Betamax.  The result?
    several years of confusion for consumers, and a division of the market
    into two segments which, while basically the same, were cut off from
    each other by the difference in size of a cassette.  Software (video
    tape) developers ended up spending twice as much to get their product
    out to the entire market, and companies not only had to compete against
    each other on product merit, but also on format superiority.  Japan, Inc
    has learned its lesson, that's why they all get together and standardize
    things (8mm video, Digital audio cassette, etc) before they get onto
    the market.

    I don't think anyone wants to see the Beta/VHS war become the Apple/HP/
    Microsoft/IBM/Commodore/Atari/etc. war.  Such a conflict can only divide
    and distract the industry.  Software developers would be stuck having to
    completely re-write applications for each environment they want to market
    to.  No, a standard of some sort is needed.

2.  I, for one, think MS-Windows is BETTER than the Mac OS in several ways.
    There are more ways to do things than on the Mac (usually two ways with
    the mouse, one with the keyboard), It has better keyboard support, I can
    buy whatever kind of pointing device I like and it will work, I can change
    the colors of the windows and what their borders look like, I can tell it
    what programs I want running at power-up, etc. etc.  You see...Microsoft
    DID improve upon Apple's "creation" (I've never seen New Wave except for
    the ad in a magazine, and it didn't really look that much like a Mac to me,
    so I can't speak to that issue).

With a standardized user interface, everyone wins.  Users can move from machine
to machine without having to re-learn, developers can port their applications
from machine to machine more easily, manufacturers can concentrate on making
their machines better instead of trying to sell you on why their OS is better
than someone else's.  I don't see how anyone benefits from NOT having a
standard.

Steve Ward
stevewa@upvax.UUCP
!tektronix!upvax!stevewa