Re: [microsound] MAC

[gm~ewen <c_loopseend@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >3 - Microsoft stole plenty of its GUI ideas from Apple, but Apple
> >took the Mac GUI from Xerox.
>
> the way i know the story is that the gui was developped for
> xerox but they didn't like it so the developpers went ahead
> with it and founded apple.

Truth perhaps in both.  The story goes that Xerox had many of the
ideas and put them in the "Alto" and then the "Star" - at $18,000
a pop the latter was a flop.  Apple was already working on the
Lisa and visited Xerox at the end of 1979 to cut a deal.  The
deal - Xerox development would buy 100,000 Apple shares for $1M
and an Apple contingent (including Jobs, Bill Atkinson and Mike
Scott, the then president) would get to look at Xerox PARC's
goodies - the Alto.  Tesler, one of the Xerox engineers at the
demo, would soon leave to join Apple.  The rest, as they say...

Check out Steven Levy's "Insanely Great".

Gordon