This is not meant to dis Bill Gates

[Deckyon]

This isn't even accurate either. MS didn't implement it for years after Apple did. Windows 1 shipped in 1985 as I recall. What MS did do, was market their product more successfully / widely to industry.

And thus you just backed up what I said. They got it to the masses the fastest. Not released earlier...

 

[dtravis7]

No, I dont think that is what they (especially me) was saying. Microsoft made it available to the masses quicker. not that they came up with it, but they got it on nearly every desktop in every business in the world, fast. It changed how people worked and communicated.

It isnt a "what's better or who thought of it" it is a who implemented it the fastest.

This topic was not meant to be an argument, but to see and discuss the but to discuss major changes in the industry and business and even lifestyle.

Agreed and well said. Microsoft did get it out there on more desktops, but Apple came up with the first really marketable GUI long before Windows 1 came out.

I used Windows 1 a couple of times and trust me, it was no where near Mac System 1 at all, but it got better with time. To me, Windows 95 was the first Windows that was even close to Mac System and later OS.

I had a friend with a Lisa who got the first Mac when it came out. I went over there and my jaw hit the floor. The 128k Mac was so far beyond it's time. Amazing system at the time.


Still Microsoft did (like was said) get the GUI out there in a large way and did make some excellent software (in my opinion) like Excel. Excel is still my favorite Spreadsheet and Word was quite good in it's day. I just don't appreciate some of the tactics that Microsoft used to get where they are and I have most of what they did on Video and documented, but they did a pretty good job. I just like Apples stuff better overall, especially after OSX came on the scene!

 

[Dysfunction]

And thus you just backed up what I said. They got it to the masses the fastest. Not released earlier...

I'm sorry, implementation really has nothing to do with masses for me


Sucks being an engineer.

 

[iggibar]

I think MS gets credit for creating a widely adopted, user accessible GUI based OS. Before Windows we were doing everything from a command line.

This.



I was just pointing it out, not to star an argument...

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

This.



I was just pointing it out, not to star an argument...

You can't take 'creating' out of context with the words that directly followed it - otherwise - it's just out of context.

 

[dtravis7]

On PC's Windows got rid of the DOS interface. That is very true.

 

[RavingMac]

I . . . found . . . an emotional connection to . . . Microsoft . . . whereas . . . there's never been the emotional attachment to . . . Apple products.

The problem is (as you can clearly see from this skillfully redacted quote) that Brian is a closet MS fanboy and can't help it.

 

[dtravis7]

The problem is (as you can clearly see from this skillfully redacted quote) that Brian is a closet MS fanboy and can't help it.

The only Emotional attachment I have for Microsoft is when I repair a Windows system all full of Malware, I see in my eyes me going up to Redmond and grabbing Balmer and choking him!

Developers, Developers, Developers! I do have a lot of Respect for Bill Gates though! Also for Office.

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

The problem is (as you can clearly see from this skillfully redacted quote) that Brian is a closet MS fanboy and can't help it.

LOL - nice. You have a future in the media

 

[RavingMac]

LOL - nice. You have a future in the media

Sorry . . . I couldn't resist temptation.

 

[baggss]

Much like Jobs, Gates has mellowed with age. Matured. Neither is the same man they were in in 1984, or 1994, or even 2004. In the end, we all grow up, and they both did. They each changed the world in their own way, pushing history foreword with their products and their passions.

 

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

In My Humble Opinion...

I think what Bill Gates, & by extension Microsoft, did for the world of computing can be summed-up by these two videos of Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs: "We Don't Ship Junk"

Steve Jobs (and Steve Balmer) on Microsoft

Bill Gates (unintentionally) did Apple a massive favour by ripping-off Mac OS to create Windows. If the concept of the GUI had never been applied to cheap, mediocre-to-average quality IBM PCs & their clones, then it's likely that Apple - assuming it was still around today - would be a very small company producing computers with very little practical use.

Why?

Well, while the GUI-based Mac in a world full of CLUI-based PCs would be - in principle - the best computer one could get, it would also have almost no software developed for it.

Microsoft's willingness to put aside "taste", and ship "third rate" "junk" that worked just well enough to make it worth buying - even if not much more pleasurable to use than DOS - made the GUI industry standard, rather than a niche market. This created an enviroment in which the Mac could flourish, even if only as the main competitor product to Windows-based PCs.

And, of course, while Mac OS X may be only the leading competitor in terms of market-share, it is the leader of the market innovation-wise; and so, as Macs gradually become cheaper relative to PCs, their market-share (& so the amount of software developed for the Mac first, if not exclusively) will only increase.

Thus, Microsoft "took the bullet" as it were, supplying the lower-end of the market with a similar product, allowing Apple to not need to compromise & ship stripped-down cheap versions of the Mac to maintain the GUI's viability; and meaning that Apple could focus on quality, not quantity, a philosophy that is fully paying-off some some 30 years down the line, now that production costs have dropped significantly.

 

[louishen]

I don't think the concept of the GUI would have never come to PCs without Microsoft.

There were several competitors to windows in the late 80s and nineties, and also the Amiga had a GUI.

What was supposed to happen was that Microsoft and IBM were developing the next OS called OS/2 that was to be the sucessor to MS DOS on the PC. DEvelopers including Lotus were encouraged to develop apps for this new system.

Whether by chance or design (take your pick), while MS's rivals were creating apps for OS/2, MIcrosoft was finding increasing success with Windows so could launch Windows 3.1 with Office - leaving its rivals with older DOS based apps and the promise of a brand new OS on the horizon, that Microsoft said it was behind but in reality undermined

 

[chas_m]

When Bill Gates goes, he will be remembered quite rightly as a very successful business titan, a person who had some influence on where we are today, and most of all as someone who discovered the value of charity late in life and attacked with passion and dedication.

He will NOT be remembered in the same breath as Edison and Disney and Jobs. Forgive the pun, but you're not comparing apples to Apples. Bill Gates will be remembered more like Andrew Carnegie or J. Paul Getty or John D. Rockerfeller or maybe Ted Turner -- savvy business barons who later gave millions to charity.