Re: Apple's GUI (Was: Re: Limited Edition GS's (Was: Re: Old v. late IIc)

[mlamorte@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Mike LaMorte)]

Richard (KILPATRICK@Tank.CYBERphile.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <jdwong.837118310@nlsgi6>, jdwong@nlsgi6.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Jim Wong) says:

: >>Some of the common lies :
: >
: >>Apple created the GUI (Jobs stole the idea from Xerox)
: >
: >"Stole" is not the term I'd use here.  Apple's GUI is based on earlier
: >work at Xerox, but the implementations are vastly different.
: >-- 
: >Jim Wong (jd-wong@uiuc.edu)
: Actually, they didn't steal anything. Steve Jobs _paid_ to license the
: Xerox Alto technologies, hence they protect them _very_ seriously.

: Another Apple mistruth!

: Regards,
: Richard

I dunno where you got that idea. Apple didn't pay anything. At the time
Jobs wanted to use some of the technologies, APple hadn't made it's
initial public offering of its stock. They made an agreement with Xerox
that Xerox could purchase 5% of the shares, but never own more than that.
When Apple went public, Xerox's investment was worth something like 11
million. The Mac Bathroom Reader isn't right next to me, so I'm not
certain on the numbers, but I'm positive as to the couse of events.

Besides, one of Apple's developers (I forget his name) came up with the
whole concept of a GUI in his Penn State masters thesis in 1967. He also
coined the term Quickdraw.

-- 
Mike LaMorte <mlamorte@freenet.columbus.oh.us>
CEO, President, Designer
Aurora Concepts Inc.
Design & Consulting