Quote:
Originally Posted by hulkrogan
^ Wow! Never heard of that. Link? I couldn't find anything googling it.
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Which, the mouse thing? I don't know why I keep saying HP, but it was Xerox. Sorry for the confusion.
Anyway, the story is that Steve Jobs traded some Apple stock options to Xerox in exchange for him and his team gaining access to the Xerox facilities for 3 days. He discovered the Xerox execs didn't care too much about this nerdy, GUI'd OS that the research division in Palo Alto had invented, so he talked them into letting his men have access to the labs and the people who invented it. I'm not sure if the PARC guys actually invented the mouse, but that was the first time Apple had seen it.
Anyway, that's how Apple got the idea for a GUI OS with a mouse. They set to work on the new prototype, building everything from scratch according to their own ideas and designs... and then contracted Microsoft to help build some of the software for it.
Microsoft, of course, had no intention of helping to build anything. They had heard that Apple was building this new OS and they just wanted to get their hands on it. So, they did, and the next thing everyone knows, "Windows" is shipping on PCs manufactured out of Japan.
So, in short...
- Xerox invented the GUI'd OS which utilized a mouse and curser.
- Apple stole their idea, but created their own OS and also created their own version of the mouse.
- Microsoft stole Apple's OS and rebranded it as Windows, and sold it to NEC for their computers, which included Apple's mouse design.
You should really find a copy of the movie. I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate, but I'd bet is pretty close. It's pretty good though.
Here's a clip of the best (and worst) part:
Steve Jobs: "
We're better than you are... we have better stuff."
Bill Gates: "
You don't get it, Steve... that doesn't matter!"