Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Humor, OS, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple
Gates wanted to use Mac OS for clones in '85
In a chilling memo to John Sculley (remember him?) back in 1985, Bill Gates pretty much pleaded with Apple to license their OS to prevent obsolesence. At least, according to an uncredited and unexplained page on Dave Winer's pages somewhere...If I may be selective in my quoting, allow me to pull a few little nuggets out of Gates' explanation as to why the Mac hadn't become a standard:
"a. Since there is no 'competition' to Apple from 'Mac-compatible' manufacturers, corporations consider it risky to be locked into the Mac, for reasons of price AND choice."
"c. Recent negative publicity about Apple hinders the credibility of the Macintosh as a long term contender in the personal computer market."
"f. Nationalistic pressures in European countries often force foreign to consumers [sic] choose local manufacturers. Europeans have local suppliers of the IBM architecture, but not Apple. Apple will lose ground in Europe as was recently exhibited in France."
Bill G's solution? "Apple should license Macintosh technology to 3-5 significant manufacturers for the development of 'Mac Compatibles'" which he then goes on to recommend such heavyweights (at the time) as AT&T, Wang, and DEC. I probably would have picked up a WangMac.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kerry said 5:29PM on 10-18-2005
Oh man, I wish Apple had done it, even if only for a little while. Unlike you, I would kill for a classic WangMac today!
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Jon said 6:07PM on 10-18-2005
Thanks for the breaking news there buddy.
When are you going to post about the new release of Windows 2.0? Or how about a post about Steve Jobs' new venture, NextStep?
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Victor Agreda, Jr. said 7:22PM on 10-18-2005
Jon the NeXTSTEP piece is here:
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/18/why-apple-didnt-switch-to-intel-before-2006/
In other breaking news, the Apple IIgs has been discontinued, and a new software product known as WebObjects is being developed according to NeXTInsider.
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X said 7:39PM on 10-18-2005
Wow, i sort of wish apple had done it. That would mean uch cheaper macs for us and better compatibility with a higher user base.
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Ian Adams said 2:39AM on 10-19-2005
*snicker* "WangMac"
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timothy Broyles said 2:40AM on 10-19-2005
My father worked for Wang during that time, and they had a deal about to be struck for Apple to buy them out (or "partner" but we know what that means). It stopped because Dr. Wang (the big boss of course) was upset that it would be called Apple Wang Division, not Wang Apple, or some such nonsense. He (Dr. Wang) was so pridefull he'd rather see his company croak than play second fiddle. While he didn't live to see it, his son oversaw the company's demise. It would have created a great powerhouse, because, at the time, Wang was a huge Digital competitor (another 80's computer powerhouse for those of you too young to remember) and had some great tech on their side.
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Ian Betteridge said 9:17AM on 10-19-2005
Gates was completely right on the first point. Corporates hate to be locked into single suppliers, for very good reasons - consider Apple's own problems when they were locked into a single chip supplier (Motorola) for an example of why.
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Dave Winer said 7:22PM on 10-19-2005
The explanation for the memo.
1. I asked if anyone knew where I could find a copy of it on the web, in a postscript to this piece.
http://davenet.scripting.com/1997/10/23/moralArguments
2. Microsoft's PR firm sent a copy in response, and I posted it, in this piece.
http://davenet.scripting.com/1997/10/24/gatesToSculley
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Dave Winer said 7:24PM on 10-19-2005
Further explanation here...
http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/19#When:7:05:54PM
Dave
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Victor Agreda, Jr. said 8:00PM on 10-19-2005
Thank you Dave for putting the context on/in/around this!
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d.w. said 9:51AM on 10-20-2005
This, of course, leads back to an old computer joke from the 80's:
Q: Who was the first computer operator?
A: Eve. She had an Apple in one hand and a Wang in the other.
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