[Swordmaker]

From that point forward the team he assembled largely exploited the ideas of others, sometimes paying the innovators and sometimes not. Apple's graphical user interface, Windows, and others can all be traced back to Douglas Engelbart’s Augmentation of Human Intellect project in the 1960s which led directly to the advances at Xerox PARC who developed the Alto personal computer in the early 1970s.

Steve Jobs supposedly saw the Xerox Alto in 1979 and hired others to imitate it in a form that could be used on Apple hardware resulting in the failed LISA computer released in 1983 and then the successful MAC in 1984. Microsoft started work on a Graphical Interface Program in 1981 but did not announce it until 1983 after the LISA was released but before the success of the MAC. But they were no doubt spurred on by Apple's work and released the first version of Windows in 1985.

The Xerox Alto was not really a “personal computer” by the standard definition. It was a single-user mini computer with limited functions throughout its 2200 unit production. Xerox never enabled any function for other users on the CPU. It’s graphical smalltalk user interface in 1979 was rudimentary, but did point the way to the full functionality that was finally brought to fruition in the Mac. Many things were lacking such as dragable windows, drag and drop, nested menus, drag to select, etc. These were all Apple inventions.

Apple contracted with Microsoft to port Microsoft Word into the Mac and supplied them with the Apple Mac code to facilitate that porting. Gates used that code access to create Windows, usurping much of the look and feel of the Mac interface and GUI metaphors without licensing any of it. The lawsuits arising out of all this were finally settled by Steve Jobs, when he returned to head Apple, in 1997 with a multi-billion dollar stock, and IP agreement in which Microsoft and Apple agreed to drop all disputes for an at-the-time undisclosed Microsoft IP licensing agreement which included Microsoft agreeing to purchase in down payment $150 million of non-voting preferred stock with a five year restriction, re-issuing (and continuing to support for five years) an updated Microsoft Office (which they had discontinued as a ploy to force Apple to drop the suits), and agreed to license to Apple ALL of Microsoft’s intellectual property at the time in perpetuity for free. Apple used this income to develop the iPhone, iPad, and the iMac. In exchange, Apple would license to Microsoft the IP which Microsoft had usurped for Microsoft Media Player at the undisclosed royalties, drop all suits, allow Microsoft to include Internet Explorer as an included Internet Browser along with all new Macs and Updates as an alternate browser along with Netscape Navigator for a period of five years, and sell the $150 million of preferred, non-voting, five year restricted stock to Microsoft. . . AND, introduce Microsoft and Bill Gates as a new friendly software colaborator of Apple at the next MacWorld Expo, showing that all things were hunky dory between the two companies. The Three interlocking contracts of the settlement were sealed by the judge in the case for ten years.

In 2007, these contracts were unsealed and I have read them. They lay out exactly what went down.

I have ZERO respect for Bill Gates. One of my friends owned a company that created a way to increase the capacity of hard drives back in the days of DOS. it was a economical way to increase storage without having to buy expensive HDs when they were truly hard to afford. Microsoft and Bill Gates STOLE his software and incorporated it into the next version of DOS! They did not even bother to change any of the code. He sued TinyLimp, but M$ had money to burn on lawyers while his startup company did not. Gate$ lawyers started demanding discovery out the kazoo, burying his in paperwork and delaying everything until he was bleeding red ink. He had to declare bankruptcy and Microsoft bought his company from the Bankruptcy court. End of case. He got nothing from his hard work and brilliant idea. Gates used that approach multiple times to steal ideas from entrepreneurs.

One of the worst things he did was to WordPerfect. Microsoft brought out Word… and made it so that the Operating system would not permit WordPerfect to print more than two copies of any document to the system printer without starting print again. Word, of course, could print multiple copies of anything.

I won’t go into the Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator debacle… needless to say all of this helped force Gates to the settlement table with Apple when the US government was looking at antitrust breakup of Microsoft in 1996/1997 and Gates did not need a drawn out trial on the theft of Apple’s intellectual property with slam dunk evidence they’d done such as the Apple software engineer’s social security number, his mother’s name, and his address imbedded in the comments of the code MICROSOFT VIDEO SOFTWARE which MS was claiming was their creation!

Bill Gates is an amoral person with zero ethical boundaries.

[fireman15]

I have ZERO respect for Bill Gates. One of my friends owned a company that created a way to increase the capacity of hard drives back in the days of DOS. it was a economical way to increase storage without having to buy expensive HDs when they were truly hard to afford. Microsoft and Bill Gates STOLE his software and incorporated it into the next version of DOS! They did not even bother to change any of the code. He sued TinyLimp, but M$ had money to burn on lawyers while his startup company did not.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge and interpretation of these events. Your memory is truly something that should be put down in book form or at the least an interview format on video... I am aware of the legal shenanigans of bullies such as Gates. Of course, my recollection of some of this history is not exactly the same as yours, but there is no question about who is the true authority.