garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand) (03/08/88)
In a recent article lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) wrote: >It seems odd that shortly after 'the toy' hit the streets every other PC >maker wanted windows, and a mouse, and started copying it. And that's >what I refer to as 'borrowing from'. Apple had the foresight that the other >computer companies didn't. Until, of course, Apple starting having >success with the Mac. Everybody else wanted in then. For an analogy, Visicalc (correct me if I've got the wrong company) was the first company to produce a commercial spreadsheet program, back in '78 or so. All the other companies (ie, Lotus etc) said "Wow this is wonderful we have to do it too" and: proceeded to beat the socks off Visicalc. Having originally been first did not automatically make Visicalc's product the most useful and most successful in the long run. Apple was the first to do a mouse/popup/paint program/etc etc etc commercially, but: that's several years ago now, and everybody has copied at least those ideas and added new ideas. If Apple wants to keep possession of their socks, they'd better start working on making A/UX a product that is the peer of X, NEWS, etc. My perception is that they've been slacking off a little. garry wiegand (garry@oak.cadif.cornell.edu - ARPA) (garry@crnlthry - BITNET)