Mac, PC (Windows), or Turnkey Editing Appliance?

oh yea he just as well might be. but maybe your wrong too. Maybe there is no such thing as macintosh in the first place. one word or two- drug induced paranoia :o na its all kool

Will Vincent said:

Apple didn't give up anything to anyone. Xerox gave up their graphical interface and mouse technology to Apple who used it to develop the "Lisa" and eventually the Macintosh. When Bill Gates saw the Lisa, he got his people working on development of 'Windows'. IBM licensed DOS (and eventually windows) from Microsoft for their personal computers that were developed to compete with Apple's quickly growing grasp on the thus far untapped home market.

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To get even more specific:

The Apple II was essentially the first mass market PC. Computers up to that point were hobby kits. Although to be fair, Microsoft actually created the first language interpreter for the very first commercially available PC, the Altair. But the Apple II (which did not have a graphical interface, btw) was the first computer that actually came ready to use out of the box.

Seeing this demand for home computers, IBM entered the game with its home computer running Microsoft's MS-DOS. Keep in mind that MS was not an operating systems company at that point. They specialized in languages. So when IBM came to them wanting an OS to go along with MS BASIC, MS bought out a version of DOS from another company and started licensing it to IBM, and later IBM's competitors.

Around this time, Xerox PARC was creating several new innovations that Apple would "borrow" and change the way we use computers. Xerox PARC invented among other things a) object oriented programming, b) the modern LAN, and c) the GUI (complete with mouse). Apple used all these features and incorporated them into the Lisa and later the Macintosh (a project Steve Jobs initially opposed, btw). They also licensed laser printing from Adobe for WYSIWYG printing.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the GUI was going to be the future of computers. When Gates saw the Lisa and the Mac, he basically reacted the same way Jobs did and set his company immediately to work on their own.

Interestingly, MS was one of the early developers of software for the Mac. Apple wasn't in the software game at that point so it needed software to give people a reason to buy from Apple.

But for better or worse, Mac sales were lackluster and Apple became a niche product mostly for graphics. Consumers chose DOS and later Windows for a reasons of price and software availability.

What's really interesting to me in all this talk of innovation when it comes to Mac vs Windows is what some get credit for and what they don't, with Apple usually getting too much and Windows too little. Apple did not after all invent the GUI, but it did introduce it to the mass market. Windows didn't invent protected memory or pre-emptive mult-tasking, but it didn introduce it to the mass market. Apple didn't invent the portable Mp3 player, but it did make them ubiquitous. And Apple certainly didn't invent the internet browser, but I don't hear too many complaining that they "ripped off" the look and feel of the browser experience with Safari, which is what Apple actually sued MS for doing with Windows.

I'll give Apple one major kudo over PCs in general, and it's not stability or security. It's design. I think the slick white shiny motif is getting old, but for the most part Apple really knows how to put things together. Alienware has a style, but you'd probably describe it as more garish than stylish. And the portable Mp3 market could definitely be more stylish than it is. Of course, as the hardware AND software maker Apple has a luxury others don't, but there's nothing stopping Dell or Gateway from putting a little style into their hardware. They just don't.