sandboy6184 said:
Just watch Pirates of silicon valley, and yes I know there are some false parts from reading Wozs site.
But I wanted to know some general apple history.
1. Did bill MS really work for Apple before?
No, Apple did not work for Apple. This is not in the film. Congratulations on being the first person I have ever known to ask the question. Microsoft got its start writing the BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800. Gates was immensely aided in this effort by having dumpster-dived in the DEC headquarters trash. In the early days of microcomputers, Microsoft BASIC was the company's dominant product.
sandboy6184 said:
2. How did MS rise, when Apple had a huge team, more money, hardware with a popular OS?
There are three eras in Microsoft's history. The first was the pioneering Microsoft BASIC era. This was a time when the company sold BASIC for such platforms as CP/M and Radio Shack's TRS-DOS. Actually, MS BASIC was integrated with TRS-DOS. The second was the PC-DOS/MS-DOS era. This era began when Microsoft licensed PC-DOS to IBM, even though Microsoft did not own it. Microsoft then duped Seattle Microcomputer out of Q-DOS (quick and dirty operating system), a 8086-compatible rip-off of Digital Research's CP/M. Key to Microsoft's success was the PC-DOS license was non-exclusive. Microsoft was able to sell MS-DOS, its own version of PC-DOS. The third was the Windows era. By this time, IBM had lost its ability to dictate the hardware market. IBM tried to regain its dominance with the PS/2 in hardware and OS/2 in operating systems. Microsoft exploited the market's reluctance to switch to OS/2 and the PS/2. With Windows 95, Microsoft killed the last vestiges of competition from DR-DOS, the direct descendant of CP/M-86. The Microsoft Office era might qualify as a fourth era. It is most certainly a major part of the third era. During the DOS era, Microsoft was a bit-player in the office productivity application market on Intel-compatible hardware. Its productivity applications were actually more popular on the Mac. Lotus, WordPerfect, Paradox, and others were dominant in office productivity software. Windows versions of PC-DOS stalwarts, especially Lotus 1-2-3, performed poorly in the GUI environment. IIRC, it is a proven fact that Microsoft had concealed Windows APIs that allowed its own Word, Excel,
etc. to perform well. Feature-wise, WordPerfect was considered to be far superior MS Word. Most, however, agree that Excel was an excellent spreadsheet. With Office, Microsoft was able to leverage Excel and its secret APIs to displace its competition in productivity applications.
sandboy6184 said:
3. Whats with , out of nowhere, some apple employees go to Japan and they happen to pick up some NEC computers, and HEy wow windows is on here which is made by one of our employees Bill GAtes. What were they doing in japan?
I have no idea. Perhaps, you ought to research this on your own.
sandboy6184 said:
4. So did windows really steal most of its ideas from the apple OS?
Thanks!
You ought to go through the
MacKido web site. However, by now you should understand that much of Microsoft's history has been marked by deceit, rip-offs, and outright theft. However, there are an awful lot of poverty-striken thieves out there. Microsoft is Bill Gates. Bill Gates was born rich. He is single-mindedly dedicated to getting richer. This is why you don't see Microsoft deterred by the lawsuits brought against it from around the world. This is why Microsoft continues its profitable Macintosh business when others are afraid to enter it.
I was talking about apples early days OS, not now