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Q & A WITH BOB CRINGELY: CONTINUED
Where does it all end? Is personal computing power about to plateau? Or is there no end in sight? Will we all eventually have 20 gigs in our belt buckles for less than $100? Yes we will. But will it still do a good job of holding up our pants? But seriously, folks. Moore's Law bottoms-out for silicon in about 2008, so we'll see some plateau there, at least for awhile.
Lets say that Bill and his serfs are successful in making all the money off the Netscape (et, al) browser and server work. Eventually, sucking dry NetScape like they have done to Apple. Who knows how much richer Bill Gates will be then? 2,3, or 10-times richer? And given the fact that the current legal system has no power to stop him, due to delaying tactics, How will the world survive having Bill Gates being more powerful than all the Royalty, Shieks, and Politians combined? Orem, Utah I don't think Bill will suck Netscape dry. But even if he did, he still needs healthy consumers to buy his stuff. Imagine Germany, 1938.
Bob: Thanks for a great series! I was wondering why Steve Jobs said that Bill Gates and Microsoft make third-rate products? Is he jealous? correct (from your viewpoint)? Also, will the Pentium chip be outdated in a year or so? Additionally, what is your view of the network computer that will be available by Oracle? Won't the resolution that a majority of Americans have on their televisions be too crummy for graphics? Just wondering what's up with these matters. Tim Schamber Simi Valley Microsoft products are derivative, which means lousy to Steve Jobs. Yes, he's jealous, but not completely wrong. EVERY chip is outdated within 18 months. Oracle's network computer is too expensive and you are right about the resolution problem. However, there will soon be $200 computers of this type (not from Oracle) and they will use cheap LCD displays and/or anti-aliased PostScript-type fonts designed just for TV screens.
Is Netscape the next "Microsoft"? Paul Shane West Chester, PA Maybe, though I doubt any one company will be as dominant as Microsoft is or IBM was.
Apple is described in the series as declining in importance relative to the rest of the industry. If you are referring to market share, perhaps you are right, however, I would disagree with the notion that only one platform can survive. (I think it is that idea that causes most of the media to characterize every computer industry news event as one more battle between Intel/Microsoft and Apple) My question: Is it responsible to characterize Apple as a declining entity (either in a business or technological sense) when they are shipping millions of Macs per year? No other computer vendor has to withstand the scrutiny and expectations that the media place on Apple. (How many times has Busineek week predicted Apple's imminent demise?)
And finally, if the Mac is a symbol of Steve Job's ego,
what then is Microsoft, if not a symbol of Bill Gate's ego.
I found the series extremely entertaining, but inconsistent
and somewhat biased in its presentation of history. I
can only imagine how many people now think that Apple's
short visit to PARC was more significant than the effort
and risks taken by Apple to bring a computer like the Mac
to market.
A little testy, David?
Loved your perspective. Did IBM really offer Bill and co. such a bad set of alternatives with either them taking over that boodagle OS/2, or turning over their vested interest in Windows to IBM? Bill G.'s explanation seems awfully self- serving to me. As if he were that humble... Joe Raiti Reston, VA IBM was used to calling all the shots. They didn't offer OS/2 to Microsoft, though, but they DID demand rights to Windows.
First of all I must give a big thanks to all of you at PBS for providing such incredibly informative TV in an age where sit coms and talks shows reign. Triumph of the Nerds had me glued to my couch, and I was totally dumb struck at how the personal computer developed. The show seemed more like a mini-soap opera rather than a documentary because of the ruthlessness which people stole ideas. Over and over again I kept thinking, "How did they get away with it?". So how did they? How is it possible that Bill Gates was able to create a monetary empire by selling an operating system that wasn't his own? In the development of the computer, honesty seems to be a weakness rather than an asset.
What does this say about
the American buisness sector
in general? In order to climb
the coporate ladder do you
have to kick, scratch, and
pull the hair of those that
are a rung or two above? Thanks for the praise, Michael. As for whether kicking and scratching are necessary for success, well it sure looks that way, doesn't it? Personally, from the bottom of your heart, do you think the Mac or the PC is better in terms of ease of use, versitlity, and overall productivity in producing all the consumer market wants to see? Please E-Mail me with your answer so I can show it to all of my friends who have doubts about what computer is the best. Thank you very much. Matt Janeczek Chicago, IL I prefer the Mac. I missed the show but read the trasnscript. Not too swift on early Mac history. Spells my name wrong, says I named it "Macintosh" since that was America's favorite apple (it was MY favorite apple) Misses the key point that Jobs was dragged to PARC so that he'd understand what we were trying to do (Which is why Atkinson says that the visit was "basically a bolstering of our convictions" and not a revelation. It is also why Tesler found that the Apple crew understood the ideas so quickly, they were already familiar with them from having worked with me on the Mac.) You'd never guess that the Mac was started when the Lisa was and that the Lisa got its graphical screen from the Mac project. At least you'd never guess it if you only watched this program. Oh well, fake host, fake history.
See the book "The Mac Bathroom Reader" by Owen Linzmeyer
(Published by Sybex) and the article "Holes in the Histories" in the ACM's
Interactions magazine. July 1994 pg. 11 for
some correctives. For those who are wondering what the heck this guy is talking about, Jef Raskin started the Macintosh project at Apple. Jef's version of the Macintosh was to be a $600 computer using a Motorola 6800 processor and no mouse. Jef later designed a somewhat similar computer for Canon called the Canon CAT, which was very innovative but not a commercial success. Jef is now a devoted father, living in Pacifica, California.
The 3 part series is a smash hit. One of those types of films that makes me suddenly more wide awake at 3am. One of those types of films where I stop typing away at 3am to watch the t00b. Anyways, here's my question... Why was Atari left out of the feature? Atari, in my opinion, had the best basic and processor (6502, the Commodore 64 used it also). Also, the Atari 8bits were the only PC's with 256 colors (WAY more colors than any PC had). Back then, it was nice to have 4 colors. Or 16 was really nice. Atari made as many bad decisions as anyone else did back then, like their Sears catalog hype. Anyways, I'm just curious why the Atari or even the Commodore 64 were ignored, when they were a HUGE success in the home market. Plus, didn't Mr. Jobs go back and forth between Atari a few times?? Angus McEwan Sacramento, California Jobs worked for Atari in its pre-computer days and Woz wrote a very successful game (Breakout) for the Atari 2600. We didn't mention Atari because we had only three hours and had to pick and choose. Also, Atari didn't play much of a role in my book. Neither did Commodore, so you can blame it on me. Oh, and the Apple II used the 6502 long before Atari.
I worked at a retail computer store, back in 1980-1981. I recall that our store went "belly up" because of IBM's announcement of a personal computer. Our store sold ALTOS, Apple, Vector Graphics, and IMS computers. The rumor was that our store was "not allowed" to sell IBM. Was this a policy of IBM's to not be sold in a store that sold Apples? Also, what ever happened to Vector Graphics of Westlake Village, CA? Jerry Nielsen Tehachapi California Computerland sold both Apples and IBMs, so there wasn't an embargo. Rather, IBM limited its first dealers to Computerland and Sears, as I recall. By the time they took in more dealers a few months later, your store was already dead. VectorGraphic went bust around 1984. They waited too long to jump on the PC-compatible bandwagon. Lore Harp, the woman who ran VectorGraphic, is a wealthy investor today in Hillsborough, California. She dumped her husband.
Is if Xerox Parc is still operational and, if so do you know how they choose their employees? Matthew Hynes New York, NY Xerox PARC is still running (you may have noticed that we shot some scenes there) but I don't know how they recruit or hire.
The show was great. How long did you work for Apple? What were your duties? Did you work closely with Jobs and Woz? Anonymous I was a part-timer at Apple for a few months in 1977 while I was a graduate student at Stanford.
What do you think the potential of Internet appliances are and could they be readily acceptable into an average household. Have you had any exposure to Dibachi brothers in silican valley(the mastermind behind Ellisons of Oracle, Internet box) and if so would their startup company, Diba, have any potentials from an investors point of view.
Sincerely, I think the Oracle price point is too high and so does Diba, which is targeting $200-300. Alas, like MITS and the Altair, the pioneers usually die. I'd bet that some company other than Diba is most successful. Look, for example, at how Netscape has taken the lead from Mosaic.
What's formal education and training did Bill Gate have when Microsoft was starting out? As Microsoft grew, how was Bill able to keep or rather ahead with the software industry.
thanks for your reply... Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard as a freshman math major. He never went back to school, but he has hired a lot of smart people to keep him technically up-to-date.
The one nerd that I really related to from the show was Gary Kildall. What a tragic hero. You very cautiously (and curiously) used the term "late" in describing him. I'd be curious to know what role he had to play in the computer industry after that initial big-business blunder of the century? And, if by "late" you mean dead, how and when did he die? Mark M. San Jose, CA Gary played only a minor role after the DOS fiasco, later selling DRI to Novell. As I mentioned above, he died in early 1995 from complications following a bar fight.
Mr. Cringely,
I was wondering if, during your research, you interviewed anyone who had worked on
the Amiga line of computers from Commodore. If my memory serves me correctly the
design team (Jay Miner, etc) built it in Palo Alto. The Amiga had a GUI and a
command line interface like MSDOS. Did they get their idea for a GUI from Xerox or
were they copying it from Apple? BTW...GREAT show! Yes, we overlooked the Amiga and caught hell for that when the show ran in the UK in April. Certainly the Amiga team had already seen the Xerox work, the Apple Lisa, and VisiCorp's VisiON GUIs.
When and how did Gary Kildall die? Any foul play involved? Let's start a conspiracy rumour -- we can call it: Bill"GATE" (after all, Gates did make a "killing" stealing CPM... quick and dirty indeed. Anonymous Hamilton, Ontario, Canada No rumors needed (read above) but there was no Microsoft involvement.
I have formatted computers in the newspaper industry for more than 20 years. I started on mainframes (DEC PDP 11s) then PCs, Macs and Unix workstations. Your program was the best show I've ever seen on TV about computers. Well done! Alan Jacobson Norfolk, VA Thanks Alan! I used to program a PDP-11 used in an atex newspaper system.
How have the millions and billions changed the nerds who at the outset had no idea what they were starting? What personal, character changes have they gone through as a result? Is it possible to generalize about this? Ezra R. Miller Ottawa, Ontario, Canada They are slowing down, these high tech millionaires, and they are used to the good life. But other than that, they are still pretty much nerds.
How would the world be different now (especially in terms of computer and network usage) if Xerox really had commercialized its PC technology in the mid to late-60s? Presumably Microsoft wouldn't have emerged but what about the Internet? Could Xerox have ever overcome its xerographic past? Ezra R. Miller Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Xerox had no computer technology until the mid-70s, but your point is a good one. Personally, I think they wouldn't have done it. Big companies hardly ever forge new trails. They are too busy making money along the old trails.
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