Computer Wars (was Wozniak vs Jobs)

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Forrest writes ...
> 
> On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Jeff Lemke wrote:
> 
> > > Now heres the irony: they finally come out with an
> > > Apple IIGS and it has better graphics and sound than the
> > > IBM clones of the day (which were doing EGA and not yet
> > > SoundBlaster).  Its speed was not spectacular, but comparable
> > > to an IBM AT revision 2 (8Mhz 286).
> >
> > Then it was about par for its day in speed (for a short while, until the
> > 386's arrived on its heels), but there were already PC's out there with
> > far better graphics capabilities via third party graphics boards, like
> > the early TARGA boards, for instance.
> 
>   For the record, Number Nine was producing 1024x1024 graphics boards for
> the Apple II back around 1980-82.


     That's interesting-- just one more piece of evidence that plenty of
people knew what needed to be done.

     As for Woz vs. Jobs, they both blew it. There's no need to
speculate about boardroom battles, etc.. If either had had the correct
vision for the company, he could have 'gone public', carried the battle
to the users, and won.

     The users-- Apple II users, Atari users, C-64 users, ...-- were
right: First you lock up the home market. Make that your power base and
everything else falls into your lap.

     The IIe should have been the GS. It could have been. Talk about
this or that supplier not being able to deliver enough of such n such a
microprocessor is nonsense. It was up to Apple to start pushing for the
65816 in 1979. It was up to Apple to guarantee a major order by 1982
and, if necessary, push for second sourcing.

     In the end, not a single major manufacturer ever 'caught on'. They
were still fighting tooth and nail for the much-hyped business market
when cheapo PC clone makers plugged in VGA cards, added AdLib sound, and
finished swallowing the home market in 1990. 

 
Rubywand