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Microsoft Bites Apple, Apple Bites Back

Posted by pudge on from the i'll-get-the-popcorn dept.

hype7 writes "The NYT (free reg reqd etc) is running an interesting article on where MS seems to be getting all the ideas for its next big OS release, Longhorn. It's only a quickie, but they look at MS's big news from WinHEC, and their possible sources for inspiration. They also pull out that fantastic Bill Gates quote: 'The one thing Apple's providing now is leadership in colors'; and that Apple execs are now having a laugh of their own over how Longhorn, 'Microsoft's 2005 version of its Windows operating system, apes features that have been in Apple's OS X operating system since 2001.'"

5 of 825 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Has either company by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 5, Informative
    Yes. Apple gave Xerox quite a lot of stock options for what little they used from the Alto work.

    Honestly, you'd think the Internet would have spread information to the four corners of the Earth, but all it does it perpetuate the myths.

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    --- Ban humanity.
  2. Re:Flattery and Imitation by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Informative
    Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997. It was definitely not 25% of Apple shares and I don't think they even had enough to vote on anything.
    They were non-voting shares, and MS has since disposed of them.

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    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  3. Re:Flattery and Imitation by LoadStar · · Score: 5, Informative
    Well this should be confirmed by someone with up-to-date news but in the late '90, microsoft bought 25% of the shares of apple. Dunno if they still have them but that could explain some of it.

    Ok, this has to be THE worst interpretation of facts I have ever seen in my life. It is SO far from the truth it's not even funny.

    August 6, 1997, Microsoft agreed to purchase $150 million in non-voting Apple preferred stock. This wasn't anywhere close to 25%. Note that it was NON-VOTING stock - so essentially it was just a goodwill investment in Apple. Microsoft was required to hold the stock for at least 3 years before selling. Another clause of this investment was that Microsoft was to continue to produce Macintosh products, including all new versions of the Microsoft Office product.

    Microsoft has since sold all of this stock - at a nice profit, I might add. Additionally, the agreement that required Microsoft to continue to develop Macintosh products has since expired as well.

    I could have just modded this down - but I thought that attempting to correct this ridiculous interpretation of events would be more beneficial.

  4. what are you talking about? by twitter · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Win95 shell imitates NeXTStep in its appearance far more than it does MacOS,

    Exacly what features of the Nextstep does win95 offer? "windowblinds"? Sure, if you download a serious modification. 95 shipped with the clumsy three button junk from win3.1 plus an extra button and a pannel. A root menue anywhere on the screen? Nope. The way it resizes windows? Nope. Menues that you can leave up on the screen? Nope. Can you name one feature that is not simply part of any GUI? I'm not going to go into the tremendous difference in the unerlying systems but just look at the apearances alone.

    Nextstep was made from MacOS and was better. Windoze never did much more than follow along the GUI path, never evolving much from the first one they made. The evolution and lines of influence are clear when you look at screen shots from each.

    For those of you not familiar with Next, check out this 1993 screen shot of the first web browser. The client was developed in 1990. There are many free implementations of the Nextstep such as Window Maker today. It still kicks any GUI Microsoft has ever made. After using a reasonable window manager on X, few people can go back to the M$ GUI confines.

    For those of you fortunate enough to have missed Windoze 3.1, here is a little screen shot from 1993 or so when Netscape became one of the first available browsers for Windoze. 95 added the X button on the top right, so I suppose you could say it coppied Nextstep in one way. Here is a typical Win95/98 desktop. Windoze XP (screen shot to compare), is more of the same and annoying as all hell.

    Please don't compare reasonable software, such as Nextstep or Sun's Common Desktop Environemnt, to junk from Microsoft. People might get the idea that one was better than it is or that the other sucks in ways it never did.

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    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  5. Re:5 huh? by Reverberant · · Score: 5, Informative

    From an MS press release:

    Apple demanded $1.2 billion from Microsoft for alleged patent infringements...

    The negotiations that resulted led to a strategic agreement between the two companies in August 1997, one part of which called for Microsoft to invest $150 million in Apple and for Apple to install Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the default Web browser for its customers... As part of his videotaped deposition, however, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates testified repeatedly that his primary goal was to resolve the patent issues with Apple and obtain a patent cross license.