Re: Apple II seen on PBS

[louiss@gate.net (Louis Schulman)]

In <4psaqg$12tk@useneta1.news.prodigy.com>, MJKV57C@prodigy.com (Josh Spatz) writes:
>That show was very misleading. They made it seem like Bill Gates was 
>responsible for the entire computer inidustry's existence, and didn't 
>even mention the importanc contributions of some people who did more than 
>Gates (i.e. Jack Tramiel, Nolan Bushnell, and a bunch more). They also 
>made Steve Jobs look pretty bad. And they did'n realize how screwed up 
>the computer industry has gotten over the last 5 years because of 
>Microsoft.

I didn't get that impression at all.  The show made it clear that Microsoft was really
nothing, until IBM came to Microsoft thinking that MS had the CP/M operating system
(since MS sold the Softcard for the Apple//).  In fact, MS told IBM it didn't have an 
operating system, and that would have been the end of the MS story, except Digital
Research failed to make a deal on CP/M, and MS ended up selling IBM a knockoff of
CP/M as MS-DOS.

Gate is shown as just being in the right place at the right time, not as a pioneer.  The
show tells us how we got to where we are, and why Gates got rich.

Frankly, as someone who runs two versions of the Softcard using CP/M in my Apple//, I
was ecstatic.  You should look at the newsgroups for computers that weren't mentioned.
Those people are upset.

Louis