APPLE DID NOT " STEAL " FROM XEROX

[Anonymous]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/0,1000001161,39600669-39001113c-20103452o,00.htm
Apple did not “steal” from Xerox
This
is such old misinformation suggesting that Apple stole from Xerox.
Apple gave Xerox a lucrative stock deal for ONE 1-1/2 HOUR VISIT to
Xerox PARC, and PARC understood Apple would be developing a GUI
interface. Apple did not even see any code. The code for the Mac was
entirely original and written by Apple. As Apple engineers stated, the
visit was more “inspirational” as to what could be done with a
graphical user interface, but that PARC’s GUI was incomplete. It didn’t
even have a desktop metaphor. Apple introduced many additional
innovations for the Mac that weren’t found at PARC, including
overlapping windows, drop down menus, and drag and drop. Plus PARC’S
Alto computer was enormous, the Mac was designed to be a small computer
so had a much different software/hardware design to facilitate that.

Microsoft,
however, did steal from the Mac. Apple was the first to give Microsoft
the opportunity to get into the applications software business by
allowing it to write application software for the Mac. Apple gave
Microsoft a prototype Macintosh before its release for the purpose of
Microsoft writing applications for it. However, while it was in their
custody, Microsoft began dissecting everything about the Mac with the
intent of writing their own competing GUI operating system.

To
avoid being outright obvious a copy of the Mac GUI, Microsoft did
everything in Windows to make it upside-down and backwards from the
Mac’s GUI. This is why to this day, the Mac’s Apple menu is on the top
left and the Window’s Start menu is on the bottom left. That is
Microsoft innovation.

Unfortunately, after Steve Jobs left
Apple, the then CEO gave away Apple’s crown jewels to Microsoft in a
licensing agreement that was so incredibly stupidly written that it had
a loophole that gave Microsoft full reign to copy the Macintosh GUI.

So
to say that the Mac even “borrowed” from Xerox from a 1-1/2 hour visit
is still stretching the truth, because while the Mac was definitely
“inspired” by the Alto, it was entirely different from the Alto.
Microsoft, however, did heavily “borrow” (steal) from the Mac and that
was clear throughout the Windows interface.

[Author]

August 24, 2009 at 3:38 PM