Re: Apple II seen on PBS

[carrk@pilotc.msu.edu (Kevin M. Carr)]

In article <4q4bp0$rb0@bocanews.bocaraton.ibm.com>,
philip@io.bocaraton.ibm.com (Philip Stephens) wrote:

> 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

   I watched the whole show and pretty much liked what I saw, especially
the Apple ][ stuff.  I agree with Phillip; they did make damn sure
everybody knew that the GUI was _not_ Bill Gates' idea and others (i.e.
Apple) had done it well before and much better than Microsoft.  Steve Jobs
was much more blunt about it; he came a gnat's breath away from calling
Gates a two bit theif.

>   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...

   The host name is (I think his first name is Andrew) Cringley (sp?).  He
described himself as a 'gossip' columnist for a computer mag.  I don't
know if that means he has much technical knowledge.  The show was actually
based on his book "Accidental Empires" which chronicles the founding of
the PC (generic term, not IBM) industry by these 'nerds'.  I haven't seen
the book but I think I'll put it on my summer reading list.

Overall I thought the show covered a lot of ground in 3 hours; I just wish
PBS had broken it up over 2 nights.

-- 
Kevin M. Carr
Research Assistant
Department of Biochemistry
Michigan State University