Re: The IBM PC's slavish devotion to the Apple II

["Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net>]

> OK, not quite exactly like I remembered...
>
> From "Fire in the Valley" by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, ISBN
> 0-88134-121-5, Copyright 1984
>
> From page 274 in my copy, Gates = Bill Gates, Estridge = Philip
> Estridge, IBM VP, head of the IBM PC project and owner of an Apple II,
> mentioned on the previous page:
>
> Gates discussed the design of the new machine with IBM continually,
> usually with Estridge.  He pointed out that the open architecture of the
> Apple computer had contributed immeasurably to its success.  Gates had
> reason to appreciate the openness since the Softcard, Microsoft's only
> hardware product, was a cornerstone of the corporation.  Since Estridge
> owned an Apple II, he was leaning toward an open architecture at the
> outset.  With Gates's encouragement, IBM defied its tradition of secret
> design specifications and turned its first personal computer into an
> open system.
I'll buy that one. I didn't remember anything about him actually bringing
the Apple II in and saying "do this". ;-) That would be out and out
plegeurism. I do agree that all computers have had an affect on what we
have now, and that Apple II was and is one of the greatest home
computers, and educationally, they had NO adversaries, but the IBM and
compatibles have won the business market and there is no arguing that.

> From reading a bit in that book, it sounds like Microsoft had a fairly
> large say in the development of the IBM PC.
That makes utterly pure sense since almost ALL OS's and much other
software for the IBM and compat's was written by MS, oops, M$. ;-)
I've tried 3rd party OS's and other software and it seems that, for me,
MS's wares are best for them.

> I seem to remember reading a variant of this story that I mentioned
> above in another book, but it's not in any of the ones I have so I'm not
> certain about it...
You have to also remember that a lot of slanderous material has been
released on both parts due to the very chasm between the 2 companies
that we are discussing at present.

Sorry for the initial posts where I allowed emotion to outrank
intellectual thought. I'm calmed down now and can discuss
things more rationally.

Thanks,

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprises
http://garberstreet.netfirms.com



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