We're All Mac Users Now

Wired News ^ | January 6, 2004 | Leander Kahney

[21st Century Man]

I'm sorry...but I gave MAC a try, really I did. ;-)

When I was transitioning from working as a Design Engr on ACAD (1986-1995 RIP) my boss was a total MAC guru (President of an aerospace concern) and he tried to talk me into going MAC all the way back in 1995, he even lent me one of his machines (God knows no one else in the company had a MAC...lol).

Sorry, tried to get some of the things you mentioned so eloquently to work for me back in 1995 and that "dog just wouldn't hunt" and last time I checked back in 1999 it still wasn't gonna make it for a small business like my wife and I run...

Gotta have BIG bucks to get the same hardware do on a MAC what I've been doing on a PC for a fraction of the coin dood!

[mikegi]

This similarity was (of Windows to MacOS) is not just in design, there are whole toolboxes/API that are almost identical (in interface). Microsoft stole data structures and many routines, and the names and concepts for many things are the same as well.

I realize that this was written by a Mac advocate (who you don't cite, BTW) but is it just possible that some of the concepts referred to were created during the time that MSFT was working with Apple during the Mac's development? MSFT was the lead app developer for Apple and was heavily involved in the Mac before it was released.

If it wasn't for the fact that they had to hack their stuff on top of DOS, they likely would have just stolen all the same code (and they did get sued for that later as well).

Was the Mac code written in x86 asm code???

Later (post 1995) Microsoft started to put some money into R&D, and they started to try to innovate. Up to this point, they did not innovate -- they just reworked other's ideas, or add-features, but that's not "true" innovation.

I guess no one ever truly innovates. Newton said he simply "stood on the shoulders of giants". Maxwell cobbled together Faraday and Ampere's stuff. Almost everything out there is derived in some way from older stuff.

I wonder if this same author would claim that Microsoft stole font smoothing/antialiasing from the UK's Acorn computer? Now that the Mac has font smoothing, should I claim that Apple "ripped off" Microsoft? It's ridiculous.

You would be hard pressed to claim that Microsoft hasn't been in the lead of the amazing innovations in 3d hardware and software in recent years.

[avenir]

"MS left things hard that would have been easy to simplify because that's what the geeks and nerds wanted."

I learned on Windows 3.1 and now use XP. What I honestly don't understand is WHAT is so "hard" about using a PC? Why does Apple push this perception?

[Joe_October]

Editing the Win.ini file using notepad is harder than clicking on a button. Setting the memory manager to a number is harder than just letting the OS handle it. All simple tasks but the geeks felt like we were controlling it. It was a perception thing.

I always thought windows would be much better if they made an application called with a bunch of sliders, buttons, pulldowns, dials, and field which you could enter random keys in it. A diddle switch if you will - a switch which does nothing.

No matter what you changed on the diddle switch, it wouldn't do anything (or maybe just have it lock you up on occaision).

We would have fought to the death on what the best settings were.

[Mike-o-Matic]

Far out! The Visual 'portable' PC Compatible from DAK. My dad and I had one of these, too! Dual floppies, what bliss for copying disks! Of course, it didn't have a hard drive, but no matter... most software fit on a floppy back then anyway... LOL. We even sprung for the flip-up monochrome LCD display that folded down over the keyboard. IIRC, it held a whole 16 lines by 80 characters of text! And that daisy-wheel printer was fantastic for multipart forms... my dad sold insurance, so we sure liked that capability!

Ahhh... computer nostalgia!

[Mike-o-Matic]

   I seem to recall the price was several thousand dollars

According to oldcomputers.net, it was introduced in January '83, for the low, low price of $9,995.

   Its most remarkable feature was the fact that one could become an expert user without reading the manual.

Admirable enough, I suppose, but the same is also true of a toothbrush, a doorknob, or a pencil! :-)

[martin_fierro]

Check it out!

I dug around & found the old binder (now being used for holding other documents) for the software that came bundled with the Visual Commuter.

Based on the index tabs in there, it came with 4 separate applications: "SilverCalendar", "SilverFolio", "SilverBudget" and "SilverWriter" (the putative word processor). What crap it was, even back then!

Mike, did you ever experience magnetic interference from the (amber) monochrome monitor, such that you had to shield the floppy drives by placing a phone book or tinfoil between the monitor & CPU?

I didn't have the LCD screen (wished I did at the time, tho), but I did shell out $70 for the blazing speed of a DAK 1200 Baud external modem. Used to spend HOURS visiting local BBSes using Procomm Plus (try doing ANYTHING fast at 1200 baud).

[Question_Assumptions]

You are correct about MS Project. Microsoft gave up on the Mac port. I'd also like to see a good database design tool for the Mac. Unlike games, however, these are programs that can be run under VirtualPC because the loss of speed, while annoying, is not the show-stopper it is with games. But you do make a good point.

[Question_Assumptions]

MS marketed at the geeks and nerds.

Actually, it was IBM that spent a great deal of money marketing the "IBM" PC to the business world (remember those Charlie Chaplin ads?) only to have Microsoft walk off with the OS and Compaq (and others) walk off with the hardware because they didn't make the system proprietary enough. That was good for consumers but not so good for IBM. If course it may be one of the reasons why IBM is embracing Linux. They've spent two decades competing in a market where they didn't control the OS or hardware standards and know how to make it work.

[CurlyDave]

these are programs that can be run under VirtualPC because the loss of speed, while annoying, is not the show-stopper it is with games.

I am hoping this will be true with VPC 7 when it is available in a few months. Right now, VPC 6 is so dog-slow that I went out & got a PC just to run the few programs I mentioned.

We got a Compaq laptop for $1100 in late December. Rebates worth $450 brings it to $650. Depending on what the accountant says, Uncle will probably contribute about $400.

It is the best $250 laptop I have ever seen. Getting it set up & onto my network only took 4 hours most of which was 2 calls to tech support. The calls are to a US number, but get routed to India, where they could not really help me. Ultimately I resolved the problem myself, but couldn't figure out which of the many, many things I had to try was the resolution.

Ramji over there really wanted to know so he could use that trick with other people. Evidently it was a common problem.

Using a Windows box is sort of like being color blind. If you have only seen the world in black & white you can get along reasonably well and not even know what you are missing. But once you have seen in color, you will be forever disappointed if you have to go back to B & W.

[Mike-o-Matic]

I don't recall ever having the interference problem of which you speak, in spite of having the monitor placed directly on top of the computer. Maybe I just got lucky and had a later revision that corrected either the PC or the monitor's design flaw?

As for the LCD, that sucker was thick, and slow to refresh. I don't think you missed much (and I bet you're over it by now). It would have been more useful if it would have been able to hold a full PC screen's worth of text.

Ah, SilverSoft. That takes me back (unfortunately). It was so bad, it made me stick with Scripsit for my word-processing needs on my TRS-80 for quite a while longer!! On the plus side though (everything has its good side, right?), it was the only program I had that could run amortizations. Now, why I needed an amortization program when I was about 15 years old, I sure as hell don't know. But it was fun to tinker with. Guess I was a slightly precocious little geek!

Thanks for posting the binder!

[meyer]

You don't think it's a fine looking machine? I don't even close this one up in my computer armoire, I just love how it looks!

Personally, I like this right now:

OK, asthetically, its not great. But I like my computers black. And, a clean desk is a sign of insanity. :)

[meyer]

Gates has always been more lawyer savvy than Jobs...lol!

That's true - and he's always been more business savvy as well. He knew that you had to move very fast in any new frontier, and personal computing was definately a new frontier. He moved fast - faster than his engineers could develop software. :)

Steve is probably a nicer person, however.

[unspun]

So hey Apple... open up the technology now and collect a-lot more money in royalties...!

[avenir]

"We would have fought to the death on what the best settings were."

LOL.