Re: Apple II seen on PBS

[philip@io.bocaraton.ibm.com (Philip Stephens)]

Bill Scheffler writes:

> 	They made Jobs look like some young punk (not that I'm fond of him
> or anything -- he basically killed the II), and Bill Gates like some
> genius.

  Actually, I got the distinct impression from part 3 that they thought
Bill Gates just got lucky capitalizing on the work done by Xerox and
Apple.  They pointed out how it took years for Microsoft to come out
with Windows 3.0, and even then it was a poor second to what Apple had
done.  They also pointed out how the release of Windows was more a game
of showmanship than real innovation.  Even one of the developers of
Windows was admitting on that show that they were several years behind
the Mac because of the way IBM tied up Microsoft.  So it wasn't really
a particularly flattering portrait of what Bill Gates had achieved.

> Although, they made IBM look like idiots on the show for all their
> mistakes.

  They also made Apple look like idiots because they didn't take advantage
of the lead they had with the Macintosh, and instead chose to be greedy
and make the Mac less competive because it was too expensive.  Which is
pretty much right.

  I don't think the show was perfect; they omitted a lot of stuff, and
the host didn't really seem to understand computers all that well, but
overall I think it was a fairly accurate portrayal of what was going on
in that decade.
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