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OS / 2 and the divorce between Microsoft and IBM Deconstructing the Osborne effect

In The return of Steve Jobs at Apple (1997) , one of the comments, asked Ivan about the history of Newton and OS / 2. I leave the story of the first Apple PDA model for the future and this time I will focus on the operating system that a priori had everything to succeed but that never really materialize. Although the history of OS / 2 back from 80 to 2005, the year that IBM abandoned the project, I focus on the early years, when IBM and Microsoft worked closely together on the development operating system and what finally led them to divorce.

But let's start at the beginning. When IBM launched the project Chess is, to be known as the IBM PC, the company was only a draft of the many he had at the time. The microcomputer market was quite small compared to large accounts with whom Big Blue was working, so Don Estridge, the head of the project, had very few resources and a very limited time to perform. This caused the PC, one of the greatest successes of IBM in the 80's, if not most, had very little to do with what until that time was a ordenaddor IBM.

Until then, IBM is typically designed and constructed if not all of it a very large proportion of all products sold. From hardware (including processor, memory, mass storage, keyboard, printers, etc.) operating system (MVS, for example) or even programming languages \u200b\u200b(FORTRAN or PL / 1 were created in the laboratories of IBM), all being designed from home, and one of the side effects was that customers were completely captive to the blue giant technology. Which, incidentally, used to be a very good quality, truth be told. And it was not exclusive to IBM, choose a platform de los años 60 o 70 era casarse con el fabricante de la misma.

Sin embargo, como se explicaba en Las amistades peligrosas: IBM y Microsoft, 1981 , Don Estridge no tuvo ni los recursos (sólo 12 personas) ni el tiempo (sólo un año) para crear un ordenador que siguiera la filosofía IBM, así que la única forma de alcanzar los objetivos del proyecto era utilizando los productos estándares del mercado en vez de fabricar los propios. Eso implicaba, por supuesto, depender de fabricantes externos para los componentes más importantes y delicados del ordenador como son el procesador (Intel) o el sistema operativo (Microsoft).

Que el IBM PC fuera construido con componentes estándar market had a big implication is that other manufacturers were quite easy to create clones of the IBM PC computers. Of course, Big Blue PC never expected the success it really was, because if they had not taken other design decisions to close most of the competition. After all, when people bought an IBM PC were buying IBM computers, so it was not so much or architecture or software or any other technical feature that made the IBM PC seller in his day were the three IBM's initial bearing his name.

In any case, arrived in 1985 there were two circumstances. The first is that IBM was preparing a new range of computers that will take away the bad taste left by the fiasco of the IBM PCjr (which you can see a picture of an advertisement for Microsoft), the limitations of the IBM PC / AT and the insolence of the manufacturers computer clones. The other reason was that Microsoft was having legal problems with MS-DOS, so that both companies have many reasons for wanting to embark on the development of a new operating system.

So the two companies embark on the development of, in his words, the operating system 90. For IBM, OS / 2 was part of a new global strategy being taken by the company so that all computers could interconnect regardless of their size and characteristics. To that end, IBM was developing a new range of microcomputers which would be called PS / 2, which would include much new technology than by IBM's new operating system developed with Microsoft.

From the beginning of the development of OS / 2 were clearly many differences between IBM and Microsoft. To begin, philosophies were completely different. Microsoft is working in small groups (a half dozen or a dozen at most) very cohesive, while IBM groups were large (hundreds of people) and very bureaucratic. The IBM decision is made by committee, while Microsoft left a lot more freedom to their workers when making choices in the product they were developing.

Another important difference between the two companies is that IBM's products have a deserved reputation for reliable, achieved thanks to IBM was in the habit almost unhealthy to try to satiety everything he did, while by that time Microsoft had 2 testers for every 40 programmers. Microsoft's philosophy was to deliver the product as soon as possible and if you have flaws and will correct, while at IBM he cared about was the quality of the final product rather than ahead of everyone with his speed. However, after working with IBM in the OS / 2 Microsoft decided to change its policy of testing and increased the staff of testers to compare the number of testers to programmers.

But if the problems were few cultural differences, the very start of a tragic hang gliding accident took the life of Don Estridge. His replacement was William Lowe, who came from the mainframe section and had no experience in microcomputers. Also lacked the technical skills of Don and, therefore, respect for Bill Gates .

With the PC / AT with less than a year old in the market, Lowe did not want to hear talk in 1985 of 386 processors Intel was still developing, as do an operating system 32 that exploited the features of the new 386 would stop lying to the holders of a PC / AT with a 286. Besides, despite the insistence of Bill Gates to port Windows to OS / 2, this is a text-mode operating system without graphical interface, at least for now.

The reason for refusing to use the 386 instead of 286 was much more limited, apart from the company's commitment to existing customers, which IBM sold machines much larger (and therefore more expensive) with a capacity similar to that which would offer a PC with a 386 processor and that Big Blue was not interested in the competition made their own low-end minicomputers and preferred to keep "castrated" the PCs

However, he shot backfired because although initially all clone PC industry movements IBM hoped to replicate, a company forward and will be launched in 1986, the first IBM PC clone PC with 386 processor, which you can see an ad of his in the attached image. This company was Compaq, and from that time the industry changed and the computer on which to rely was that of Compaq. IBM had lost the lead and had to do something.

Aside the Apple Macintosh in 1986 began to soar and sold really well. Graphical environments began to be treated as serious computer and began to be borrowed by customers more serious, so an operating system that is considered modern and a future investment could not be limited to only in text mode.

So in 1986, with enough haste, IBM had to change their plans on the fly. After talking with Microsoft, the operating system would also be compatible with the Intel 386 processor, but making it clear that the priority was to focus on the 16-bit system. Similarly, IBM also accepted Microsoft Windows port for OS / 2, but under the condition that will change the name. Thus was born the name of Presentation Manager, the graphical interface of OS / 2.

However, Presentation Manager would not be a port to use Windows, but IBM wanted a series of modifications and additions, so the final result ends up being incompatible with Windows for MS-DOS. Since Windows Presentation Manager and had become so different, Steve Ballmer, until then primarily responsible for relationships with IBM, considered it a waste of resources split Microsoft in two projects of such scope and also competed yes, for what he completely cancel development Windows and focus on OS / 2. Luckily for Microsoft, Bill Gates did not consider it a good idea to go all out to the letter from IBM and Windows could be a very useful shot in the bedroom.

In any case, Presentation Manager was not ready for official release of OS / 2 operating system market as the four new computers PS / 2 IBM in December 1987, of which only one had Intel 386 processor and the other three models had an ancient 286. In the attached picture you can see how it was aesthetically one of the PS / 2, although there semitorre tower models, not just desktop.

This first version of OS / 2 was already a fairly robust multitasking operating system and also was able to run DOS applications, but only one at a time. At the time of its release, both Microsoft and IBM saw that OS / 2 would get beat in DOS sales within a couple of years, by late 1989 or early 1990. In the attached picture you can see what the operating system interface in text mode in that December 1987.



Almost a year later, in October 1988, was released version 1.10 which had as its main feature the graphical interface developed by Microsoft, the aforementioned Presentation Manager. But these 11 months gave a long way.

To start, sales of OS / 2 did not finish off. The reasons were varied. On the one hand, the price of the operating system was quite high compared to MS-DOS, $ 325 a copy in front of the $ 99 DOS. Besides, the hardware requirements for OS / 2 was far superior to those of MS-DOS. And last but not least, there was virtually no native software for the new operating system, so it made no sense to spend a fortune to purchase OS / 2 and a computer capable of moving and then still use DOS applications. Which, incidentally, was not emulated 100%, so maybe these DOS applications work properly even under the new operating system.

They say that all you are skinny dog \u200b\u200bfleas. In March 1988, Apple Computer sued Microsoft for infringement of copyright of your Macintosh. According to the company on the block, the first version developed by Microsoft for Windows fulfilled scrupulously all the licenses, but instead the new features and additions included in the current version at the time of Windows, 2.0.3 inflicted up to 13 Apple patents. Here you can see the different graphic environments Macintosh (the original of 1984), Windows 2.0.3 and the first version that finally emerged from Presentation Manager to judge yourselves. Macintosh



Windows 2.0.3



OS / 2 1.10




However, Apple's real goal was not so much as Windows Presentation Manager itself, which was known to be developing I drank from Windows 2.0.3 source. And if this version of Windows infringe the copyright of Apple, of course the graphical interface of OS / 2 also.

Apple's demands not only represented a possible delay in the launch of OS / 2 1.10, but as a side effect consciously sought, many software manufacturers began to be afraid to invest in developing both Windows and OS / 2 under Presentation Manager, because if Microsoft lost the trial and was forced to recall two graphics interfaces all development would be in vain.

Although there were precedents for cheating against the look (not the code) of a computer application, the judge would agree to Microsoft in the same year, and although Apple appealed the sentence and gave many laps the verdict was clear: it was safe to develop graphical interfaces, even if they seem a lot like Apple, which, by the out of step, it seemed also that of Xerox. Microsoft shares doubled in price the day of knowing about the decision.

However, until 1988, Microsoft Windows had given many more sorrow than joy, but as of this year sales of the graphical environment began to take off, and Bill Gates realized that there could hide a winning horse. It is for this reason that, while continuing with the development of OS / 2 and become the main public support even above IBM, Microsoft also began work on the next version of Windows, the 3.0

In 1989 Lowe IBM leaves and takes a job at Xerox, and was replaced by James Cannavino , which had a more technical and even came also from the world of mainframes fairly well understood technology underlying the PCs, however, Gates did not trust Cannavino, since he considered that most of the problems they had found OS / 2 (focusing initially on the 286 when the 386 already on the market, lack of graphical interface for so long and when he finally comes out is incompatible with Windows ...) were the fault of hers.

Nevertheless, in the COMDEX Las Vegas 1989, they announced a new commitment to support OS / 2 and it seemed that limaban differences. Under the new agreement, Microsoft would devote most of their efforts to work on OS / 2, which was destined to rule the mid-range computers and high while Windows would focus on computers lower end to its final demise.

However, especially after seeing the reaction of industry to this agreement, Bill Gates decided to do just the opposite of what was committed, and removed people from OS / 2 to promote the development of Windows 3.0. In any case, the end of 1989, when it said that OS / 2 would exceed the DOS, MS-DOS had a market share of 66% while OS / 2 was not even 1%.

For announcement of Windows 3.0, Bill Gates secured the support of industry heavyweights, even those who until then had remained hesitant to Windows as the people of Lotus. With all the new features included, the new graphical look and all the leading manufacturers of software developed for it, Windows 3.0 became by far the most anticipated software package so far. In the attached picture you can see a screenshot of Windows 3.0

Finally, in September 1990, Microsoft and IBM stopped working together on OS / 2, the first project out and leaving the operating system in the hands of Big Blue.

Of course, the history of OS / 2 does not end in 1990, come new moves, upgrades, business successes and failures ... but as they say, that's another story, and will be counted at the time ...

Marithe Francois Girbaud Jeans At Outlet Price

When Apple went public in June 2005 that it would abandon the PowerPC architecture to switch to Intel was discussed for some time Osborne effect, that is, with the announcement of new equipment for months or even years before they Many users expect to be ready for new equipment so that current sales would suffer considerably.

Why is this called Osborne effect? The legend says that a company named Osborne Computer Corporation market had a fairly successful computer called a Oborne released in April 1981, but when it was announced in 1983 a new sales model Osborne 1 almost froze, causing the bankruptcy of Osborne Computer Corporation . Why call it legend? Do not you? Well ... no.

is, like every legend has some truth. Sales of the Osborne 1 suffered from the announcement of the new computer but ... Well, not anticipate events and study a little history of this curious company.

Adam Osborne, the founder of it, there was certainly no stranger to the world of microcomputers. Not for nothing was there from the beginning, from the output of Intel 4004 (the first microprocessor in history) and the heroic days of the Homebrew Computer Club they came from so many companies (the most popular of them all was Apple Computer). The

Homebrew Computer Club was the place of meeting in California of the first microcomputer enthusiasts, people whose dream (and whose hobby) was building his own personal computer. Consider that until the birth of the microcomputer industry with Altair 8800, computers were large pots designed for companies and, at best, tertiary education, where if you were lucky you could access some kind of system timeshare as a PDP-6 or similar and buy process time to a company that rented computer.

However, after the invention of the microprocessor by Intel (the aforementioned Intel 4004) in the first half of the 70 was already enough technology to build one's own computer. With great difficulty, yes, but it could. By today's standards were ugly and coarse pottery, although by the time were extremely sophisticated devices, almost, almost science fiction. Until at least the second half of the 70, the first personal computers were built, as the aforementioned MITS Altair 8800 or Apple I eran básicamente kits destinados a los aficionados, los cuales tenían que montar y en muchos casos soldar a mano siguiendo unas instrucciones hasta, muchas horas y sudores después, tener algo que pudiera funcionar (y no digamos ya que sirvieran realmente para algo, aparte del didáctico ejercicio de montaje en sí).

En este escenario, Adam Osborne fue dándose a conocer gracias a su empresa fundada en 1972 Osborne & Associates , la cual se dedicaba a la publicación de libros para los aficionados a la informática. Estos libros se caracterizaban por ser manuales de gran calidad didáctica, muy fáciles de leer y seguir, por lo que eran casi de consultation required.

Of course, the Homebrew Computer Club was not the only place where fans had microcomputers, but say that if we could return to the 70's and we could choose a place to stay to watch in class the birth of the sector, the ideal would be the meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club .

However, as the world of microcomputers was developing and with it their market, so the company was making Adam Osborne. In 1977 drew the attention of publishing giant McGraw-Hill , which acquired Osborne & Associates and created a new label within the same where to accommodate computer-related books.

in 1980 is said to Adam Osborne visited the laboratories, which if not, Xerox PARC, where he saw the Xerox Notetaker , a computer "portable", not portable, and the idea was so impressed he decided to create their own company to manufacture and market a computer-based Notetaker.

Whether true story of the visit to Xerox or not, Adam Osborne made contact with Lee Felsenstein, designer of logic circuits that had worked with him in the review of some of his books and also in the design of Sol-20 computer. After studying two different ideas for your new computer, finally announced the final: a compact and portable computer in one piece, powered by batteries and small enough to function in an airplane seat. He was born on Osborne 1, and to manufacture and market founded the Osborne Computer Corporation cited above.

The final computer had a 5-inch monitor, two floppy drives, 5 1 / 4, a Z80 processor to 4 MHz, 64 kbytes of RAM, operating system CP / M and 15 kilillos weight in a compact design that resembled a briefcase, all at the price $ 1795, about half of any similar computer at the time.


Of course, by its very design, Osborne 1 computer was not targeted to fans of Homebrew Computer Club but their target was in the corporate market. Not surprisingly, Adam Osborne contacted major software manufacturers time to make your Osborne 1 was well wrapped useful applications for this sector, such as word processor Wordstar , the leader in the sector to who was ousted in mid 80's by Wordperfect , or upon the refusal of creadores de la hoja de cálculo VisiCalc contrató a Richard Frank para que creara SuperCalc , una hoja de cálculo inspirada en el líder del momento en el sector.

El ordenador fue todo un éxito, llegándose a vender unas 10.000 unidades mensuales (pensemos que muchos fabricantes de la época ni siquiera vendieron esa cantidad en toda su vida).

Sin embargo, tras la salida del IBM PC en agosto de 1981 (sólo 4 meses después del Osborne 1 ) las ventas se estancaron e incluso llegaron a reducirse. No demasiado, claro, pero no dejaba de ser significativo que en vez de aumentar bajen. Hay que hacer algo.

And something did. Osborne Computer Corporation announced in 1983 that they were working on a new and more advanced computer. Of course, this caused sales to suffer even more. Finally, in September 1983 the company declared bankruptcy and had to close its doors forever. What did happen? The

announce a new product months (or years?) Before final marketing can actually slow down current sales, since customers do not need to already existing product can be expected to leave the new model. However, this is not true. Reduced own sales and competition. Microsoft and IBM are adept at using this tactic, and IBM has been sued (and lost his mind) for abusing it.

That is, when Osborne announced a new computer not only makes the thought buying a Osborne 1 think if you need it now or wait to see the new model, but thought that the customer purchased a , say, IBM PC was also raised wait to see how advanced is the new Osborne computer to see if it is worth this or not.

Consider, for example, in the current situation. Microsoft has problems with Windows Vista. There are even people who are going to Microsoft and it's going to Macintosh or Linux. What What is Microsoft doing? Announces Windows 7, which is not available in at least one year. And just in case lets you use the beta for free until 2010. What Microsoft stops selling Windows Vista with this? For sure. What it is better that people go to other platforms? Absolutely. Perhaps even then they can hold these people end up changing the platform, but at least going to give you a second chance, and you pass the competition also have fewer sales. When the ad is able to reduce the number of "defections" above the number of lost sales for the company can be a good bet.

So basically, that's the idea that there behind the movement of Osborne Computer Corporation. He knew what would cause and effect were already steps to counter it. At first I had a hard time, but soon recovered and came back to win money. So, why the company bankrupt a few months later?

Well the reason was a miscalculation. In 1983, following the announcement of the new model, a vice president of the company suggested to Adam Osborne that the lot of motherboards from the old model they had in storage, worth $ 150,000, were completed and sold, and make money with them instead of wasting the $ 150,000 for stock obsolescence.
Adam Osborne
was okay and started to work. The problem is that the cost of completing these motherboards meant an expenditure of $ 2,000,000 to the treasury of the company was not far from cover, and to the hole created and the inability to find emergency financing, the company found absolutely no liquidity, and that was what made it fail.

If not finished we will see clearly to take another example. Picture yourself in the following situation. You have your work (ie, a steady income), you live in an apartment of your property, you have your car ... etc. And then you decide you're going to go travel on your holiday month for the world. Among expenditures, changes currency, contingencies, the memories ... not calculate well and spend too much.

When they finally come back and you get to do math, you realize you've spent much more money than you had saved, and by this I mean not money set aside for the trip but in general. Not all your savings together (the treasury of the company) to cover expenses. And next month you get the mortgage, electricity, water ... and you have to live apart, that is, you have to eat, going to work ... if your income is still insufficient to cover all your bills, you have a serious problem. You can try to refinance your debt if you can not or it takes too long to sell the car, sell the house and buy a cheaper, and benefits to pay part of the debt ... You can do many things, but these solutions require time and creditors may not be very patient and you end up seizing (by the way, delays in payments also generate interest, so every day that passes without paying you more.) Well, basically, this is the situation that confronted Osborne Computer Corporation.

So when you talk about the effect Osborne, you know that in reality, Osborne broke for other reasons and not for the announcement of a new computer ...

What Do French Basque People Look Like

The rich neighbor: Xerox PARC

Following the comments in the comment of ocell and my subsequent response , I would like to dedicate this fourth pill at one of the most important myths and legends in the history of microcomputers: Apple's visit to the offices of Xerox PARC.

This legend is well exemplified in the film Pirates of Silicon Valley , which indeed has already been mentioned here on other occasions. Basically, the legend said that Xerox had a good development team that created something so revolutionary that the board of the company was unable to see any value. Then came (why magic?) Jobs and his team and made a visit, they copied what they saw and what would the Macintosh (LISA it is not clear how it fits into all this.) According to the film, Bill Gates is the LISA and decides he likes while having to have it, so go to Apple (again, why would I?) And deceive Jobs for they are assigned a few prototypes of the Mac to copy Windows interface and out. But that is another story to be told at another time, now let's focus on the visit of Jobs and his Xerox PARC.

Again, to understand why decisions were taken, and things were done that made you have to understand first what is the background and what moved each.

For starters, who was Xerox? Why enters our computer history? Xerox was the owner of a technology by which it was possible to make multiple copies of documents at high speed. This two crude words, did photocopiers.

The copier business is not that you were wrong, in contrast, were international leaders and earned money to baskets, but for the entry of the 70, with the boom in data centers of enterprises and the dream of paperless office (yes, that dream is as old), at Xerox was thought that if all company documents were no longer on paper to move to an electronic format, then Xerox Technology would be useless, so I decided to anticipate events and create a center focused on the development of the digital office. The center was founded in 1971 and was called Xerox Palo Alto Research Center , better known as Xerox PARC.

result of this research and development center was the Xerox Alto , a computer developed between 1972 and 1974 which had now completely everyday items but at the time were unique in the world, such as a graphical interface controlled by a curious device called a mouse, a word processor WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get , ie what you see on the screen is what you get for your printer), a programming language called object-oriented Smalltalk or a networking technology called Ethernet, all built within the company. The computer was clearly focused on the office world, as evidenced by the monitor in vertical position, so that we can work more easily in writing of printed documents. Here in the video below you have a small summary of what was the Xerox Alto.



And it is not, of course, that Xerox policy not see any value in these accomplishments. They were aware that what in their hands was very valuable, though perhaps not everything was really valuable. However, despite the High was completed in 1974, two years before the founding of Apple and a year before they develop the MITS Altair and start the microcomputer industry, the Alto was just a prototype, very nearly an experiment laboratory that had done spectacularly well, but now Xerox was a problem. How to benefit from all this wonderful technology? And here is where Apple.

There are numerous stories about the deal reached by Xerox and Apple. One of them says that Jobs offered $ 1,000,000 in shares of Apple in exchange for opening their labs Xerox Xerox PARC, in that movie (Pirates of Silicon Valley ) what is shown is that Jobs and Apple employees a few more just go to Xerox, and you're coming, they begin to show the jewel in the crown because other (and not be eager to do so).

The truth is a bit more complicated. At that time (1979) Apple was not yet a publicly traded company, which meant that if you wanted a portion of the company had to speak directly with the owners to sell it to you (if they wanted and the price you got trading) instead of going to market and pay the price that shares are listed. Why

a company will want to sell portions of itself? This really is a complicated issue and this is not the place to explain, but basically say that to get funding. If you go to a bank and ask a loan you must return it with some interest, apart from that first the bank has to consider whether your project is viable and so on. But if you can convince someone to buy a percentage of your company, say 10%, for $ 1,000,000 that someone owns the copyright of 10% of your company, yes, but your company will have $ 1,000,000 of free cash. And it also means that the purchaser has reviewed your company at $ 10,000,000 (if 10% is worth a million ...).

Also, of course, the major shareholders can sell their shares in a personal capacity to earn money. That's how Jobs got his first million $, selling in 1979 a (small) part of its shares of Apple.

But about the history of Apple and Xerox. In 1979 Apple began a program to sell shares to large groups of investors as a way of financing and one of these big investors who were contacted was Xerox. The Apple II was in full swing, especially after the release of Visicalc and some software packages that justified the companies to purchase personal computers for their employees. Besides, the educational market had operate and the Apple II computer was the star with special campaigns for educational institutions.

Therefore, thanks to the skill and charisma of Jobs, Apple managed to put company stock worth $ 7,273,801, of which, as I said, $ 1,050,000 were acquired by Xerox. For Xerox, Jobs gave the impression that Apple was the future and become a giant Xerox whether you entered it or not, so it seemed smart and not very risky to invest $ 1,050,000 in it. Besides, Apple was already working to make an IPO, that is, to go bag, so that the potential of that million $ could be enormous, and indeed it was. But

is, there was no agreement. Xerox did not undertake to teach anything. And Jobs, at least for the moment, did not request anything more than money to Xerox.

So why there is the famous visit? And how is that Jobs knew it was a good idea to go see what they did at Xerox PARC?

Well, in the 70's, when Apple was growing exponentially, so did its employees. Many of them came after having worked in large companies like HP or, as in the case of Jeff Raskin, Xerox.

Jeff Raskin, pictured with Steve Jobs after he was hired by Apple to perform manual BASIC programming for the Apple II, and after good work finally came on staff as manager of the company's publications. However, Jeff was a visionary in his own way of computing also had very clear ideas of how it should be a microcomputer and in 1979 got permission from the first CEO of Apple, Mike Scott, popularly known as Scotty on Apple to explore their ideas by designing a new computer model, which is named Macintosh .

Anyway, Jeff, having also worked at Xerox, he knew what had been developed at Xerox PARC. Raskin repeatedly tried to convince both Jobs and Wozniak for a that since they had good relationships with Xerox, they did try that a demonstration of the technology Alto. However, neither case did much to Steve, because both believed that a company the size of Xerox lacked the ability to compete in the fast and dynamic world of microcomputers.

Macintosh project at that time was quite small, with very few people working 100% on it. I think at that time, only Jeff Raskin himself and Burrell Smith, the designer of circuits Mac, however, occasionally other people could work on specific things for the project, and so Jeff was talking to Bill Atkinson, the software wizard interface behind Lisa, telling Xerox designs, all of that mouse, icons, dropdown menus ...

The Lisa project was directed at that time still Steve Jobs. As a principal software engineer, Bill Atkinson was heard and respected by Jobs, so that on waking Bill Jeff's curiosity Jobs asking this over to try to manage a visit to Xerox PARC labs. Jobs finally agreed and began negotiations with Xerox.

Why Xerox agreed in turn to teach the jewel in the crown to a potential competitor like Apple? At first glance, it seems very smart, right? Well, as we have said, Xerox was able to build the Alto is a completely revolutionary computer and most advanced in the world for years. However, he had not found out how to return to their achievements. Who could be interested in a computer as well? In its traditional customers, the corporate market, certainly not, they demanded large mainframes and would not know take advantage of the tremendous sophistication of Alto.

Ultimately, the High, how it was conceived, was a personal computer. Was intended to be a single person to sit in front of him and interacted with the computer. It was not the best option of course, for large batch systems, but it was so expensive to produce than anyone would pay thousands of $ to put that computer to a secretary and that she could use only. The Xerox solution would be an alliance as a company like Apple and together build a computer powerful enough to hold all the advances of the High but inexpensive enough to be sold to individuals.

For Xerox, this operation was to give ideas or technology to competitors, their intentions were to work with Apple to get a computer inexpensive enough to be sold as personal computer. So she was willing to teach High Apple people. The visit was Apple going to make no commitment, because what happened was not the head of Xerox people who signed the agreement is that Apple, if I was interested in what they have seen, passed from them to implement their own version from scratch instead of working with Xerox PARC.

Thus, after several days of intense talks, finally reached an agreement and Jobs, Scotty, Bill Atkinson of Apple engineers and four more went to Xerox PARC facilities where Larry Tessler Upper and showed them where it has the legend, he was profoundly shocked by the attitude and questions that made them the people at Apple, the most intelligent that no one, even Xerox's own people, had ever done.

Steve Jobs For the Alto was a revelation. That was another world, had nothing to do with computers that he had known. He kept saying things like "Why did not you doing something with this? Is the greatest thing I've ever seen! Is revolutionary!", Unable to sit still in his seat overcome with emotion. "How much can you take to do all this," Jobs in Atkinson asked that day. "Six months," he said. It was, as I say, 1979. The Apple Lisa, the first attempt, was released in 1983. The Apple Macintosh in January 1984 ...

Bill also was a revelation. I knew the theory, after all Jeff Raskin had often talked of Smalltalk, the graphical interfaces and all that, but it was not to hear or read about something before him there, see it work, play with him. It would be unfair to say that the later designs of Bill Atkinson was a crude copy of the Xerox Alto. Since then, there are apparently inspired by that day at Xerox PARC, but no need to detract from Bill.

In any case, both Xerox and Apple followed different paths. Apple made its own graphical interface implementation would be in the Apple Lisa, 1983 and Apple Macintosh in January 1984.

Xerox, meanwhile, finally built himself a personal computer with high technology. This computer was the Xerox Star, which you can see an image on the right, released in 1981 and being the first personal computer for sale with graphical interface, mouse, Ethernet and laser printer, one of the greatest inventions of Xerox . It cost a whopping $ 16,000 in 1981 compared with $ 10,000 of the Apple Lisa and Macintosh $ 2,495, and was targeted as the next evolution in smart office. But, unfortunately for Xerox, said computer, the first of "his kind" was a resounding commercial failure, reaching to sell only 25,000 units worldwide.

Invitation For Lohri Of Son

"tu me away"

remember a couple of days ago I sat in a park Despite being surrounded by a large crowd, I felt deeply lonely, as if all these people had something in common, they all walk to somewhere in particular, had a purpose for being there at the time and I did not know I was there not expecting anyone, he was not going somewhere in particular, felt excluded, strange.

Suddenly I notice that I'm not the only one who feels well, on the other end of the bench was a young man about 17 years ago, I felt I had the same feeling that I, despite only being around people; We stared for a while, our eyes distilled sadness love, fear, hope ... then I could see how, Zahir was at that time asked me why we were so far away? maybe it was the best. At one point he lowered his head and said, "look at us ... you I walked away, just have to have you back" and left me there, lost and insecure.

But it was only a dream, so real ... Every night before I fell asleep I remember, I wonder if I really wanted to say that I do not know and I have a fear of knowing ... I have a lifetime to discover, but perhaps in time we do change, and take paths very different, and if at any moment I regret not having done nothing when I could ... then I'll know what to do.

Someone once said: Someone once said, are good girls who write diaries, poor never have time, I ... just want to live a life that you will remember, even if not put in writing.

Basketball Gyms In Ottawa

The return of Steve Jobs at Apple (1997)

After the comment Mr. Blogger saying he had heard that it was Microsoft who put Steve Jobs in front of Apple, I decided to write this third story pill information on the return of Jobs to Apple. We know that in August 1997 and was head of the company, but ... What happened to someone completely unrelated to Apple in December 1996 had just directed his fate in August 1997?

As always, to understand the motivations of the characters, must begin with the background. Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple (who have been in the consciousness popular that these were Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but they were three, only the third one was the short time apart was not anywhere near as decisive as the two Steves), while Steve Wozniak had a more technical background on Jobs However, without being completely ignorant on the subject, was not particularly qualified as an engineer. His specialty, as it was really good, was in the leadership of a group. Of course, much to his way.

When early 80's John Sculley was hired by Apple to the post of CEO, the general idea was that they booked someone with experience and had proved its worth by defeating the giant Coca Cola Pepsi and that in his position would serve as a teacher and mentor of Jobs, it was assumed that Steve would end in time to play this role at Apple.

However, in 1985, Apple sales were quite disappointing. Really were not that bad, but compared to what was expected to be significantly disappointing. The Apple Lisa was never sold much, the Apple III had so many problems that ended marketed under the name Apple II by the notoriety he had taken, and the Macintosh, the winning horse that would take the company to dominate the market with a clearly superior product, it seemed he had lost his magic touch and could not stop their sales to suffer. Even the almighty Apple II computer with which he had supported all began to show signs of exhaustion.

Steve Jobs had several ideas for turning the situation, but clashed with Sculley. So basically, attempted a coup in Apple, forcing the situation to the board choose between him and Sculley. Jobs had a great self-confidence, because, he thought, how would not opt \u200b\u200bfor the terrible enphant of computing, the boy wonder of the company founder, incidentally, the highest individual shareholder. But he was wrong, the board opted for veteran Sculley and Jobs was relegated to a position of no importance.

So after a few months pondering his future, which raised even go on the ill-fated Challenger project, Steve left Apple, he sold all his shares at least one (in order to continue receiving reports from Apple because, even if only action, it was still a shareholder) and founded a new company, NeXT, and also because I was curious and bought another as a hobby and that would give first time many headaches and finally gold would: Pixar.


In the absence of the two main founders (though really Wozniak never leave Apple, and still remains bound to the company), Apple had its ups and downs, reaching the final years of the 80 first golden age where the benefits were so high that even allowed afford to distribute dividends (virtually any computer company, unless such giants as Microsoft or IBM, distribute or have paid dividends. And Microsoft only now a matter of 10 years has not begun to do).

But 90 came bad dice, and Apple's star began to fade. As reduced sales and profits dwindled John Sculley tried to find a buyer for the company among large companies like Philips, Siemens, Kodak, AT & T, IBM, Toshiba, Compaq or Sony, but without much success.

In any case, given the evidence that John Sculley was unable to overcome the situation, the board forced him to resign in 1993. His successor Michael Spindler attempted to take flight with several strategies with mixed success that failed to return the splendor to Apple. Spindler also tried Apple rid of their problems merging it with Sun Microsystems by Scott McNeally, a proven leader personality and charisma that will surely Apple would do much good. The year was 1995 and, despite advanced talks, the voluminous losses that Apple McNeally quarter made him think better and backtracking. Apple would have to solve their problems alone. January 1996

see first how Spindler needed urgent medical assistance due to the tremendous pressure he was under at Apple was to affect him too seriously to heart, and finally on January 31, Apple's board relieved him from office.

His successor, Gil Amelio, the company set out to renew in 5 major fronts, both technological and "cultural." In any case, Apple's losses in 1996 amounted to the not inconsiderable amount of $ 1,000 million, most impressive even if we consider that Apple was valued by those then a little over $ 10,000 million.

One of the fronts on which Gil Amelio was proposed to renew the company was in the field of software, especially operating systems. MacOS 7 had been an excellent operating system, but age is beginning to weigh very seriously about it, it was falling far behind. Since the early 90's, Apple was working on its successor, the project Copland, but after all these years and hundreds of millions of $ spent uselessly, Amelio knew that it was best to swallow your pride, forever terminate the project and Apple to find out what is had been unable to create within.

To do this, Gil Amelio had four possible candidates: Microsoft Windows NT, Sun Solaris, BeOS from Be, Inc. and NeXT NEXTSTEP finally.

The leading candidate for Gil Amelio was Windows NT. Not surprisingly, Amelio had contact with Bill Gates in 1996 exploring the possibility that NT Microsoft Windows port to the Mac platform while retaining the classic graphic interface of the block. Of course, Bill Gates was enchanted with the deal, but to Apple's chief technology officer, Ellen Hancock, did not like much the idea by considering a very risky project. She gambled more for the second candidate, Sun Solaris, UNIX system well established, robust and stable.

Finally, whether for business or technical reasons, the two main candidates have been discarded, so there were only BeOS and NeXT. BeOS, the Be operating system, Inc, a company founded by former Apple Jean-Louise Gassée and successor to Steve Jobs in the same in 1985, was liked by Gil Amelio, an operating system it was very light and very very modern, more advanced in many aspects than NeXT, but also much less mature. Apple

negotiations began offering, $ 200 million for Be, Inc, but Gassée realized that Apple was desperate and therefore could get a better deal, so he asked for his company $ 400 million and then sat waiting sure Apple would end up giving up.

However, despite the fact that Steve Jobs or you would be thinking of entering negotiations with Apple, NeXT fortunately for themselves that there were people in the company willing to take the first step. John Landweln, NEXTSTEP was sure that Apple really needed to, convinced Mitch Mandich, vice president of sales NeXT, for him to contact Apple to back, of course, Steve Jobs, which certainly was not going to lower so far as to offer to his former employer.

order to contact, Mandich served as a director is mid-level NeXT called Garrett Rice, who called an Apple engineer to get talks with Ellen Hancock, all of this, of course, on the day of Thanksgiving.

In less than a week negotiations began buying from Apple. As NeXT was not especially known for its commercial success, Apple just in case, while negotiating with it, was asking all the technology partners who had or had NeXT looking for a single reason to reverse the operation. Not finding him, the negotiations continued its course until it reached a point advanced enough to engage Steve Jobs. This may a little weird, but not the same ask Jobs to call Apple's door to see if they wanted to buy that present a strong buying interest. It would never happen first, at second ... to see what offer is that they do:).

However, Jean-Louise Gassée began to fear that the ripe fruit does not just fall from the tree but that would end up picking up other, so they lowered their claims and gave Apple the opportunity to buy Be, Inc. for $ 210 million, very close to 200 million originally offered. However, it was too late.

to Gil Amelio, the value of NeXT was not alone in its software, which was undeniable, but also that with such purchase could be incorporated into the template back to Apple Steve Jobs, giving a great stunt. And before that, Be, Inc did not have much more to offer.

So, finally closed the acquisition of NeXT by Apple in the amount of $ 350 million, other than payment of the debt at that time NeXT had about $ 50 million from Apple. In total, some $ 400 million, Gassée requested by Be, Inc., however, that Gil Amelio was not able to convert Steve Jobs on Apple employee payroll. It was a compromise so that Jobs would be linked to the company as an external consultant. Not exactly I wanted, but enough.

Obviously, at that time many were those who understood that Steve Jobs longed for since Gil Amelio, the post he had coveted several times in the past and so far he had resisted. Bill Gates called Gil Amelio to warn. Even at the press conference announcing the agreement were buying was asked about Jobs himself. "Oh no, Louise," Louise replied to the journalist who asked the question. "I have a family. I have other interests."


Steve appeared, although in relative background, in January 1997 keynote. Gil Amelio was still the boss and the conference was his. After a long, boring lecture, finally, introduced several new advisory board, and among them were both Steve Wozniak and, above all, Steve Jobs, who took a standing ovation. Jobs has always mastered the art of captivating the audience in their performances, and after the long tostón of Gil Amelio's brief chat with the dynamic that the enthusiastic audience gave a lot more expectations rose that all the monologues of Amelio. Steve pointed somewhat in his favor, the competition, although he refused, was served. Jobs

served as an advisor on several occasions accompanied by Gil Amelio in various meetings with various important personalities in the world of computing, such as Bill Gates, who managed to commit to supporting the development of Rhapsody, the union of NEXTSTEP and Mac OS 7 and it would become what later became known as MacOS X. You may be the CEO Gil Amelio, but it was Steve who was negotiating. He was the snake charmer.

After finishing the first quarter of 1997 and made public the accounts of the company, the hard reality was hitting Apple. Since Gil Amelio took over the company in January 1996, Apple had lost $ 1,600 million. Amelio managed to hold on the job a few months, but finally on July 9 was fired for the board.

quickly, Jobs took over Apple exploiting the power vacuum (keep in mind that not even on the payroll at Apple and has only one share of the company) and based on their moral authority and respect it provoked. To strengthen its position purged board managers who had been in the same during the long decline and the company, putting three people change their utmost confidence. Indeed, one of them is his good friend Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle, which released just months before the pump to the press that it was considering buying Apple and Jobs set his friend to direct . Know God if he actually said was serious or not.

is also the time when Michael Dell responds when asked his opinion about the changes at Apple that Jobs if he were what he would do would be to liquidate the company and distribute the money out to shareholders. Nine years later, in January 2007, Steve Jobs reminded this quote after beating Apple to Dell in exchange.

In any event, the keynote August 1997, the same which we raised in this pill was not yet clear exactly the position it occupied in the organizational Jobs of Apple. However, as for practical purposes it was he who made the decisions within the company, that 16 September was appointed interim CEO as no surprise. Well, yes, it was "interim" CEO not to dry. And also surprised his salary. Jobs charge $ 1 a year. Yes, just one. And would not receive, despite the junta offered it, not a single action for it. It was not money, said Steve, and evidenced by this gesture. Money, or rather, the actions would come later, but that's another story to be reckoned with another day ...

Weird Stomach Pains On Both Sides

Dangerous Liaisons: IBM and Microsoft, 1981

Since my first entry talking about last release of the IBM PC in 1981, this second I'll try a little more depth exactly how it was the launch, especially focusing on the relationship between Microsoft and IBM.

You may have seen the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley , where there is birth and first reports of Apple and Microsoft, which also speaks of the agreement between IBM and Microsoft to develop the operating system for the IBM PC. While this film is good to get an idea unfortunately relies too heavily on the "legends" that in reality.

IBM To understand who was in the 70's, suffice to say that Microsoft was like today, only even more powerful still. The most lucrative part of your business was (and so, still is) its division mainframes or giant machines designed for large corporations. When the 60 appeared minicomputers such as DEC PDP-1 IBM did not pay much attention to these machines, they were ridiculously limited compared to its mammoth mainframes. However, for organizations such as universities and (relatively) small businesses these minicomputers were a blessing, for though she had very limited computer did for a price considerably lower, and as worse than having a computer was not very powerful to have no computer Companies like Digital Equipment Corporation found their niche.

When IBM finally saw the business opportunity was lost and "champions" to vanquish, and while no one dared to cough about IBM in the field of mainframes in the world of the thing changed and minicomputers competition was much harder and with a leader other than Big Blue , also known as IBM.

So, in the mid 70's when he started the revolution of personal computers and personal computers, IBM did not take it too seriously either, but fearing that the same thing happen again with minicomputers worked on several projects to have their own microcomputer. The year was 1975, the leading vendor with microcomputers was MITS Altair 8800 (in the attached image) and companies like Apple have not even been founded. For this scenario, IBM released the IBM 5100, a monster weighing 25 kilos, 64 kbytes of RAM, processor and monitor PALM 5 inches. I do not know what their asking price, but I suspect that IBM was being overly expensive.

At that time nobody had computers for the public, mainly because personal computers were more a hobby than something of real value to a home. But of course, the IBM 5100 or even was focused on the market of computer enthusiasts, but it was basically a proof of concept for the corporate market and was not made with the idea of \u200b\u200bturning it into a mass product.

As you can see in the picture, it's a damn big and heavy pileup that was designed to be "portable" despite his 25 kilos (the black square that has the man on your left is the monitor, yes). So if we compare this computer with things like the Commodore PET, Apple II or the Radio Shack TRS-80, to name the three main models of 70, we see that could do little to compete for a place in the home.

addition, for those applications did not exist then as Visicalc that could have opened a door in the corporate market, so both the computer and some subsequent projects after they found an audience to be sold.

However, in 1976 the personal computer market began to move and take off in earnest in 1977. The sector's growth was spectacular, thanks to the neglect of the major manufacturers of computers, newcomers such as Apple, Atari or Commodore found their niche market and when they entered the settlers were sufficiently large to engage in battle.

But back to IBM. Given the recent impact Personal computer makers were getting and that many of its corporate customers were buying Apple II computer with the program Visicalc , IBM designed the new design of a personal computer to sell to all these corporate customers, IBM 5150 that the public end known as the IBM PC.

talked about 1980, then the world by those of personal computers, but had a lot of publicity, was a world completely emerging minority and to some extent, so that IBM was not even a strategic project, much as the code name (Project Chess, chess in English) indicates otherwise. IBM

understood, in any case, he had no time to lose and I had to find a product (relatively) affordable with which to compete and to be ready in the shortest time possible time, namely one year. Everything that happened in that time they served the Big Blue.

Until then, IBM style had been to design and build to the last screw of their products so that each computer was 100% with its own technology from the processor, mass storage media, operating system, the printers and even programming languages \u200b\u200bused.

However, to meet the requirements Tax time, Don Estridge, the person who ran the project and who can see her photo here, had to break with this philosophy. With twelve people could not be designed, tested and mass-produce all components of a computer, however small and unambitious it was, in just one year. Thus, the IBM PC had to be built with products that may already be in the market.

Thus, the IBM PC era, rather than a typical product of IBM, a kind of Frankenstein monster in a case IBM. Don Estridge had to seek at all times to major market leaders to find the components needed to assemble your computer, for such as Intel, the technological leader and at that time.

Regarding the software, again the project had neither the time nor the expertise to create an operating system and programming language in such a short time, so Estridge sought the leading developer of programming languages \u200b\u200bfor personal computers, Microsoft , requesting that carried their BASIC interpreter, the de facto standard at the time, the future computer development.

Of course, even before you even start talking about programming languages \u200b\u200band businesses, Microsoft was forced to sign confidentiality agreements draconian. At that moment, apart from IBM itself, no one outside the project knew about the existence of this, and few persons know companies that could not have dared to open his mouth to make it public. Consider that the IBM of 1980 could have the power in the world of computing power similar to Microsoft and Google all together today. And nobody, nobody would dare to ignore the call of IBM. Sorry, did I say no? Uhm ... we'll see.

The fact is that IBM wanted Microsoft BASIC to carry their personal computer were designing, and Estridge asked Bill Gates about the current status in the field of operating systems for personal computers.

Back then, the standard de facto was the CP / M Gary Kildall programmer, with whom Bill Gates had a trade agreement so that Digital Research, Gary Kildall's company, did not get into the field of programming languages, ie "private domain" of Microsoft, if Microsoft did not get into the world of operating systems.

Bill Gates was true to his agreement, directing people to IBM to Gary Kildall and CP / M and warning that this would send a very special client (obviously could not tell who customer was so special.) The legend said that when IBM employees Gary was not there and his wife refused to sign the agreements confidentiality required by IBM, so IBM people turned and left. Here you can see both Gary Kildall and his wife posing for Digital Research

The fact is that negotiations, if they existed as such, did not reach any site and IBM was no real hurry to have an operating system, because was a delicate and important component that without the computer would not directly sell.

So they talked with Gates to inform you that there was no deal with Kildall and if there was a plan B. That was when Microsoft agreed to produce a complete operating system for IBM PC output in August 1981.

Again, the legend says that Microsoft bought for $ 50,000 an operating system called QDOS (Quick and Dirty acronym for Operating System), changed its name and is in turn resold it to IBM. However, the story is a bit more complicated.

While Paul Allen actually knew an engineer who had designed a very simple operating system for Intel was going to carry the IBM PC was almost almost a prototype, a proof of concept. Of course it was a good start, it is not the same start writing an operating system from scratch to start with a product that works, this is very basic. And as a result, it was the final date in August 1981 moment was released the IBM PC, one of three operating systems available for the computer was the so-called PC-DOS, which was none other than Microsoft's MS-DOS.

course for Microsoft was a huge hit in charge of manufacturing their own computer operating system from IBM, because thanks to that became the industry leaders in a short time and long on the computer company's largest world over IBM itself, but at the time was a very risky bet that few people have known how to post.

For IBM, the IBM 5150 (ie the internal code of the IBM PC) was just another project. IBM is not expected to have anywhere near the success he had and all I wanted was to enter a market before it had really strong leaders as had happened with minicomputer and Digital. The project had a budget and a very specific window of time and at any time may be canceled and peace here and then glory. However, for Microsoft this project a considerable investment of own resources, as if today is vastly larger and richer in 1980 was just the opposite, and if the project was canceled what would have been really bad.

So it was not as depicted in the film Pirates of Silicon Valley , Microsoft with Bill Gates to head to search for IBM to sell an operating system that did not have, but it was all a bit coincidental and need.

Stouffer's Store Ohio

Hello world!

Now we
If I loose Floto !

I do not think at this point no one expected an update, but there is! During this time and I must confess that to my surprise, I received many emails from people complaining about the lack of updates, requesting the return of the blog or shitting in my teeth ... And users - that might not have seen the date of the last post I sent congratulations on the blog or me asking for advice. Well, here I am. We have moved, well, we on the same site, but we changed the name and we will make a selection of articles, reviewing, updating and, if necessary, discarded. Wanting to do well and I would not delete content from here, I decided to open another blog, where I will put the content I like this, extended and revised, attempting a more serious tone, but without losing touch something and colloquial unpresentable have. I'm in the process of convincing some friends to get me a helping hand from time to time, if not working directly, at least send stories, articles, borrow books or other things ... :)

Let's go quietly but surely, the recycling of content will last a while and then I put them with new content, this has yet is a succulent drafts.

No claims will be a weekly blog update, without discarding any dead short week, we will focus on providing a more dynamic through the new twitter, where if there will be more frequent updating (140 characters greatly help the lazy like me) and it may continue practically everyday of the page, even without bothering to visit it as a new item when we go up to Twitter as a feed.

new 'addresses? Sure!

New name - I hope you like -: If I loose float http://simesueltanfloto.blogspot.com/

In twitter: http://twitter.com/Simesuflo

hope I have not lost too much readers with the crisis, as I recall it was 7 if you count my dog \u200b\u200bxD

Tickets now revised and uploads:

LSA , PSILOCYBIN , NOVATO psychonaut GUIDE