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Pirates of Silicon Valley

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CharlesP2001

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How accurate is the Pirates of Silicon Valley movie? It makes Ballmer look like more of a lunatic than I ever thought. And that's pretty sad that Microsoft didn't even develop MS-DOS.

The movie gave some of my friends a very negative impression of Apple Computer and Steve Jobs specifically. They now feel that Jobs is a kind of slave driver and thief as far as the Xerox GUI. I personally think that the Lisa OS and Mac OS were nothing like Xerox when those computers debuted.

The Macintosh was a radical new design nothing like any other computer available at the time. The Mac OS really launched the idea of a graphical user interface and got Microsoft to build up Windows 1.0. I feel that Jobs did get the idea of a GUI from Xerox, but it was certainly Apple designed.
 
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I have never heard of this movie.. is it a movie you can rent?
 
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PowerBookG4 said:
I have never heard of this movie.. is it a movie you can rent?

Probably. It was a TV movie that aired on TNT during the mid-90's, and I've seen it on Amazon and a few others.
 
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Who cares how it started. What matters is why its still around.
 
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I own the movie and I have also read the book it was based on "Fire in the Valley". It is more or less accurate, only a few "Hollywood" things were added.
CharlesP2001 said:
The movie gave some of my friends a very negative impression of Apple Computer and Steve Jobs specifically. They now feel that Jobs is a kind of slave driver and thief as far as the Xerox GUI. I personally think that the Lisa OS and Mac OS were nothing like Xerox when those computers debuted.
And yes, if you read the book and watch the PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds", you will see that both Jobs and Gates were both cutthroat, slave driving individuals. The movie accurate in that respect. Apple also stole the Xerox GUI almost to the letter. Xerox did take Apple to court for that and the case was eventually thrown out... much like Apple's subsequent and similar cases against Microsoft.
 
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I had to watch that a couple of times in High School, interesting movie. Probably would like to see it again now after owning my Mac, I would pay attention much better.
 
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TOYOTA said:
I had to watch that a couple of times in High School, interesting movie. Probably would like to see it again now after owning my Mac, I would pay attention much better.

What class did you watch it in?
 
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PowerBookG4 said:
What class did you watch it in?
I think he watched it in eather tech-ed(Computer) Or drama. Correct me if im wrong.
 
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CharlesP2001

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Steve Jobs

Seemed like a fairly accurate movie as far as what I read but it kinda make Steve Jobs look like a jerk. Made Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer look like absolute porno-addicted losers.
 
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You have to keep in mind that the movie was made at the apex of Microsoft's success and Apple's lowest point. They wanted to dramatize the fat cats of the new millenium. At the time, it looked like it was going to be Gates. Gates, Ballmer, and Jobs have all changed since the 80s. It's a great movie, but taking it as an absolute primer for how the men are would be unfair.
 
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PowerBookG4 said:
What class did you watch it in?
The first time it was some general business class. The second time was Accounting. The teacher was gone for a couple of days so we just popped that in. I wasn't complaining!

*EDIT*

I would like to know what on Earth I had on my signiture that deemed the moderators to put this...

I am the last person to have anything even close to offensive. I simply listed my Macs and their specs... :confused:
 
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CharlesP2001

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True, Apple was still kind of low the the time, but this movie was released in 1999, and Apple was doing some great business with the iMac, but that shadowed in comparison to how Microsoft ruled the world of PCs with Windows 98. I am glad to see Apple being as strong as it is now.

Would you say Apple is the strongest now that it's ever been? I see Apple ads on TV more frequently, more coverage of Apple on national news, more magazine articles, more people talking about Apple, and iPods are everywhere! I think Apple may well be the strongest it's ever been. And right now, the sky is the limit!

Meyvn said:
You have to keep in mind that the movie was made at the apex of Microsoft's success and Apple's lowest point. They wanted to dramatize the fat cats of the new millenium. At the time, it looked like it was going to be Gates. Gates, Ballmer, and Jobs have all changed since the 80s. It's a great movie, but taking it as an absolute primer for how the men are would be unfair.
 
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Seems i have to watch this movie!
 
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Wow, so how much of that movie has been embelished?

Portrays SJ as a bit of a nut case.

Great movie, glad i watched it!
 
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topshot

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Watched this movie a while back and thought it was excellent. Bit of a geek movie but certainly makes you think about how these businesses rose out of nothing. Of course it is a movie and so they are going to over emphasise the qualities that they know about the characters. i.e. at the time it was known that S. Jobs was notorious for firing people. At least that is how the press liked to portray it. MS at the time was also seen as godly in terms of creating standards, even if it was for their own programs. Windows also freed people from ugly AS400 terminals while macs where too expensive.

Would love to know if S. Jobs and Bill actually met on a hill in some diggers.(atleast I think that's what happened in the movie). Anyone else remember some of the cool bits from the movie?
 
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u should no that jobs got i think the actor that did jobs was on the 2000 macworld and did the start of the opening keynote
 
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D3v1L80Y said:
Apple also stole the Xerox GUI almost to the letter. Xerox did take Apple to court for that and the case was eventually thrown out... much like Apple's subsequent and similar cases against Microsoft.

I would disagree that Apple "stole" the GUI from Xerox. A deal was struck, one that was unfavorable to Xerox but they still took it, and by the time they realized they had been shortchanged in the deal Apple had already brought products to the market. Xerox never knew what they really had until it was too late. Their system was originally never intended to leave the lab and would have died their if not for Steve and Bill (Gates also viewed thew Xerox GUI). The deal made with Xerox was for Apple stock and a stake in the company. Although it was a bad deal for Xerox, it did not appear so at the time and Xerox did make money off of Apple when the companies stock took off.

In the Apple/MS case, there was ample evidence that MS blatantly stole the "look and feel" without a prior agreement with Apple. Gates then tried to backpedal and claimed he got his ideas from the Xerox project (the breaking into my neighbors house analogy) and the judge, who had never used a computer, bought it.

Both Jobs and Gates have been described as cut-throat *******s, but Jobs IS a megalomaniac. Horror stories abound from former Apple employees about Jobs attitude and tirades within the company.

There are a good number of books on Apple that deal with this subject as well as the history of Apple and Jobs. PM me for a good comprehensive list as I can not post the link here.
 
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CharlesP2001

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No, that was Chris Larson who raced Gates on the bulldozer. I think he was the guy earlier in the movie who was excited about making a Blackjack program on the Altair machine.

I wonder if Gates really crashed a bulldozer into Paul Allen's car? Those things aren't exactly fast and it should be easy to keep from hitting a car.

topshot said:
Would love to know if S. Jobs and Bill actually met on a hill in some diggers.(atleast I think that's what happened in the movie). Anyone else remember some of the cool bits from the movie?
 
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CharlesP2001

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I agree, Apple certainly didn't steal the Xerox OS. Apple didn't use any Xerox code, and the two OSes aren't very similar.

You could say that Apple stole the idea of a graphical OS, but aside from that Apple did all the work on their own. Apple built their own mouse, Apple made their own software, and Apple's computers were nothing like the ones at Xerox.

Microsoft on the other hand did steal, they took code right off the Macintosh prototypes. Microsoft is really a sleazy company if you know their history. Right from the very beginning Microsoft didn't do their own work. They took BASIC from others and reworked it to run on the Altair machine, Microsoft bought DOS from the Seattle Computer Company, Microsoft ripped off the Mac OS and called it Windows (by the way, I've used Windows 1.0 and all it is is an ugly, low resolution, colored, and poorly made copy of Mac OS). Even more recently Microsoft has been "borrowing" elements of other software and calling it their own. Many of the components in Windows 95 all the way through XP were taken from elsewhere.

Some of Microsoft's biggest products were bought from other companies, like Flight Simulator and VirtualPC. And Microsoft is quite devious with all of the vaporware they announce. They commonly announce products in order to try and scare people into buying Microsoft products, or sometime just to keep people from buying software from other people.

And just imagine what Microsoft will do to force people to buy Vista. No one seems too interesting in getting Vista, so Microsoft will twist people's arm in order to force them to buy it. I imagine they'll cut off support for XP very quickly, and I've heard that people won't be able to download Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. I also expect new Microsoft games to be restricted to Vista, and any hope of getting the most out of XBOX 360 will require a Windows Vista PC. Some people have also suggested that Microsoft abandoned development of Service Pack 3, as well as most future updates to XP. Oh well, I'm pleantly happy in the Mac OS X world, and I'm really looking forward to Leopard!


baggss said:
I would disagree that Apple "stole" the GUI from Xerox. A deal was struck, one that was unfavorable to Xerox but they still took it, and by the time they realized they had been shortchanged in the deal Apple had already brought products to the market.
 

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but Jobs IS a megalomaniac. Horror stories abound from former Apple employees about Jobs attitude and tirades within the company.
=============
Whatever he is Jobs is a fantastic CEO and without him there would no Apple.
Its takes a person like Jobs to get things done a lot of the time.
 
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