Re:1997 Technology? (Score 0)

I am very sick of these one liners which mention a random word or two, in the desperate hope that those will be read as facts or some educated insight into the subject matter.

The relation of Lisa and Mac development to Xerox boils down to two (count them 2) trips that Apple engineers made to Xerox PARC in 1979 for Smalltalk technology demonstration (a common practice) by Xerox after Apple signed an agreement with them that allowed Xerox to buy $1 million worth of Apple stock at throw-away pre-IPO price (their investment was up almost 1800% just a year later on IPO). The two visits by Apple including nothing more than a technology demonstration. There was no code provided or stolen. Yes Apple was inspired by Xerox's Alto, you will never find any Apple employee who does not give Xerox due credit for their technology and vision. However having said that both Lisa and the Mac were far cry the technology demo that Smalltalk was. Xerox's Smalltalk did not have a file finder, drag and drop file manipulation, file types, imaging and windowing model, clipboard, pull-down menus, self redrawing windows, control panels, and a zillion other things that made the commerically viable operating System that embodied the Lisa and the Mac.

The Xerox PARC director at the time had this to say, "Just like the Russians and the A-bomb, they developed it very quickly once they knew it was doable." Apple independently developed the first GUI operating system and also invented most (some by Xerox) of the underlying concept and technologies. Yes they were inspired by the Xerox's Smalltalk but an inspiration does take away from all the hard-work and brilliance of the Apple Engineers who poured their hearts and souls into Lisa and the Mac. If you have doubts about that just ask the father of modern physics.

Now in contrast Microsoft being a future developer for the Lisa/Mac had the actual source code from Apple which they blatantly STOLE. You should read up on a subject before posting sweet nothings. These might help:

Apple and Xerox

Apple history Books

Microsoft's founding principle, "Steal first, ask questions later". There are probably thousands of examples of this principle at work, but here is a sampler or two:

The real origins of ClearType

Virtual Desktop manager "invented" at Microsoft

Apple is like a guy who, saw someone else who built a wooden raft for the first time but never actually tried it on water, and said, hey this is a good idea let me build my own version. Only they built a proper boat with a sail that could and for the first time did carry many people on water. Microsoft is like another guy who saw Apple's Sail boat and said hey this is a good idea, let me steal one. They stole it repainted it and sold it as their own.

BIG DIFFERENCE!