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Q & A WITH BOB CRINGELY: CONTINUED
Bitter bitter bitter. Why are all the developers of the personal computer either bitter or paranoid. Jobs made like a 100 million dollars and he has disgust for Apple? Gates is worth 8 billion dollars and he is worried about not being number one.
Money is the root of all evil. I take it that you are not the Rich Page who designed the NeXT Computer System?
I enjoyed the show about the computer nerds and I was wondering if a room full of 24 year olds changed the future of america and how it does buisness why does eveyone seem to dis-beleive anyone under thirty? just think if this would have happened to steve jobs and bill gates. also i hope steve jobs company next inc. spanks them all especially apple. greg cicero laurel maryland Those 24 year-olds were able to be so successful specifically because nobody thought the PC would amount to anything. If it had mattered, nobody would have listened. Isn't this the way it always is? Weren't the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Alexander Bell, Samuel Morse, etc., etc., etc. all outside the mainstream?
Will UNIX survive? John Eise Dousman, WI Yes, as a server operating system.
First, I would like to say that I enjoyed watching the nerd program. My question is you had mentioned that Apple is leaning towards bankruptcy, Is this true as of today? What is the future of the apple computer? What are your views of the future on the computer? Also, I was wondering why there was no mention of the microsoft windows nt product becoming the nest killer app for microsoft.
P.S. When do you expect PBS will view this program again I have answered all these questions in earlier replies. But I never said Apple was "leaning towards bankruptcy."
What do you see as the future of interactive television? Given the oversupply of websites and the money, time and resources companies spend to develop and maintain them, when will the www become the viable(profitable) marketplace everyone thinks it should be? Wilkie McCoy NYC, NY Those are two separate questions, right? Interactive TV requires a network rebuild. That rebuild had to happen anyway, so I expect ITV to have some impact in the 1998-99 timeframe. As for the web, all those expenses you mention are spread across a lot of companies and individuals. Cost isn't the problem. It's revenue that's the problem.
Where was Pammy? Mike Hurwitch Novi, Michigan She's at home right now, sleeping.
If there was a sequel, it would pick with the rise of Netscape. The way I understand it Netscape is trying to stay ahead of the standards board to become the de facto standard on the net. And how does Microsoft figure in the net? Will we have net boxes or computers? Will there be in the next generation a corporation that will have as much dominance as MIcrosoft? Thanks, Neal Hopper Marietta, Ga There WILL be a sequel and part of it will deal with Netscape.
Bob: Your show, "Triumph of the Nerds", really seemed to capture the life and times of the PC development era. Great job!!
Would you comment on how Jobs and Gates kept all
the egos in-line? My experience has been that
egos and tight schedules do not work out, at least
in a "team" environment. There must have been a
high turnover rate. There was a high turnover at Apple, but at Microsoft they send people off to rest after burning them out. Microsoft tries to keep employees for life.
With the nature of the everchanging computer industry and with the advent of the Internet, what do you think will be the next area of concentration to expand? (i.e. software, graphic design, Internet accessing, etc.) ACE Hammond , Louisiana Sorry, I don't understand this question. Maybe I'm not smart enough. Probably.
Very interesting show. I have a 3 part question. 1) Why didnt IBM actually build the IBM pc? It appears that they just bought a bunch of off the shelf parts and an operating system and put it together alowing any small company to clone the ibm pc very easily. They built the PC, or rather they assembled it in an IBM factory. If you mean why didn't they make it proprietary? As the show pointed out if they had done that the IBM PC would never have been finished. 2) Why didnt IBM design their own GUI OS - they had thousands of programmers and were much bigger than MicroSoft or Apple who were able to do it? They did build one and it was called TopView -- a MAJOR flop. Having thousands of programmers can often be a major liability, you see. IBM never (and still) didn't quite get that once you get beyond 3-5 programmers on a given project, things get out of hand. 3) Why didnt intel just market a pc in the early 80's themselves since they had the most important part of the machine? what would intel have done with the cpu if IBM hadn't decided to market the pc? It seems like IBM needed intel a lot more than intel needed IBM.
Intel didn't have the infrastructure then to make and sell PCs. Had they started to build such an
infrastructure, the PC makers (including IBM) would have felt threatened and immediately switched
to another processor family. It has taken Intel 15 years to get into the PC business by slowly building
both a manufacturing capability and a market dominance that they now can't be dismissed even if they
become competitors.
Hi there, Mr. Cringely...or can I call you Bob? I saw your show last night (Wednesday June 12th) and I have to say it was great! It was a very insightful look at todays technology and how it all began, and it also presented very well by you. Needless to say, I will be ordering the video set. My question for you is this: In your show, and also above in this form, it was stated that you have been in the computer industry for many years. I was wondering what part of the industry?? Who or what companies have you worked for? Also, where did you gain all of your knowledge that you presented on the show? You seem like a very intelligent and sharp man, I'm just curious. I hope these questions aren't too personal for you.
Once again, great show! And I look forward to
watching it again, in 10 years. :~} Thanks, Lewis. I was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club back in 1977. I worked for several early PC companies, including Apple. I have a technical degree. I have written about the PC industry for the last 10 years. And I have a lot of friends in the business. That's how I know what I know.
How come, when I compare a Windows pc G.U.I. to a macintosh G.U.I., it looks like Micosoft sat down at a Mac, and copied it? Yet the law looks at these two G.U.I.'s and says; no, Microsoft did not get any ideas from the Mac, and no copyright laws have been broken. Why? What was the deciding factor? I use a PC and always have. played around on a Mac a little. It is just in all fairness I think the Micosoft G.U.I. is just not all original as they claim it to be. So... what does the law say about this? Thanks JACK HARMON INDIANAPOLIS, IN The issue is not so much whether the work is original, but is it PROTECTABLE? The court decided there was so much copying going on that everyone was guilty, which meant that nobody was guilty. It's like everyone on the road decided to drive 100 mph. Who are you going to arrest?
Bob, Mighty fine show! Could you please tell us the dates of Steve Jobs' visits to Xerox PARC? Thanks! Warren Allen Irvine, CA The dates? I don't know. It was in 1979. Where did you shoot the interview sequence with Bill Gates? The picture in the background is part of the art collection of Microsoft but the room didn't look familiar. What was his reaction to doing this interview? Redmond, WA We did it in a very impressive video conference room that's part of the multimedia group. I'm sorry but I forget which building it was. The folks there cobbled up that background. I understand Bill is happy with the show, though he hasn't yet told ME that.
1. What affect do you believe magazine publishers played in shaping the history of personal computers? In particular Byte Magazine. 2. What would the PC industry be today if IBM had not decided on the open architecture concept? Terry Owen Lake Oswego, Oregon Magazines were important, especially in giving liberal credit to poor software companies like Borland. Byte literally jump-started Borland in that way. If IBM had not entered the PC business, some other big player would have. We'd be in about the same place today, though the names would probably be different. Bill Gates and Paul Allen are both Microsoft billionairs, but you said there are at least three. Who is the third MS billionair? Steve Ballmer = $3 billion. Also, how many Apple I computers were sold, and how much would a working model be worth today? There were 50 Apple 1's and the last one that sold went for somewhere around $5,000.
Erik Iverse
Hey, Bob. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time now through the InfoWorld column. Two questions: 1. Why are the references to your Info- World column in the past tense? Are you no longer doing that? and 2. Was Pammy subliminally placed in ANY scene? We're all dying for a peek. Dave Rosen Syosset, NY
1. Infoworld fired me last December.
I missed in "Triumph of the nerds" details about the processor deal with intel, their rise and struggle with competitors like AMD or Cyrix. Will that be the content of a separate documentary or are the chip designers just not "nerdy" enough? Ulli Hoffmann Baton Rouge, LA For one thing, that story is happening right now and can't really be called history. And since it doesn't have much of an impact on the Intel architecture or on users, we left it out. We had only three hours, you know.
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