8 Nov
2006
8 Nov
'06
10:39 p.m.
On Wed, 2006-11-08 at 07:18 -0500, Ray Arachelian wrote:
Warren Wolfe wrote:
If there was some explicit arrangement between Xerox and Apple, I'd
like to know about it. I don't know of any. Xerox's PARC developed the
technology. The Lisa WAS under development before the Apple "field
trip" to the PARC, but it was going to be a much less impressive
machine. From people at Apple at the time, I have heard of a memo from
Jobs stating he wanted to drop their current UI, which can be seen at
http://www.pegasus3d.com/apple_screens.html and adopt the Star
interface, and develop from there. Jobs also hired a bunch of people at
the PARC away from Xerox.
Apple sued Microsoft over the fact that Windows (as claimed by
Apple) had stolen the Macintosh (or Lisa) interface. Bill Gate's
defense was, when it was boiled down, that both Apple and Microsoft had
stolen the interface from Xerox. Upon hearing that, Xerox filed suit
against Apple in the middle of the Apple vs. Microsoft trial. In
typical Xerox fashion, they filed about two weeks past the deadline.
Their lack of business acumen in the computer field ensured that they
didn't really profit from some of the finest human engineering ever
done. If there WAS an agreement about the technology between Xerox and
Apple, why did they sue them for taking it?
Peace,
Warren E. Wolfe
wizard at voyager.net
It's too bad, in a way. The effort put into the Lisa
was gargantuan, and directed very well. On its own, it
was a great product. It was just the user interface which
was appropriated without permission.
I'm not sure that the above is correct.
All the historical sources
point to the exact opposite. Steve Jobs gave Xerox a ton of Apple stock
to "sort of open the kimono at Xerox PARC." It was allowed and well
known, and if you read the stories on folklore.org and compare a Star or
an Alto to a Lisa you'll find there are vast differences in the UI. It
simply wasn't just copied, much less without permission.