June 25, 1985: Bill Gates Proposes Mac Licensing in a Memo to Apple
If the Mac has ever had a bigger fanboy than Bill Gates it is unclear who it was. In the days before the release of the Mac, Microsoft had more people working on software for the Mac than Apple had employees.
So it was both with an idea to capitalize off Microsoft's investment and a sincere desire to see the Mac interface everywhere that Bill Gates wrote a memo to John Sculley, who was then Apple's president, begging Apple to license the Mac OS. An excerpt:
"Apple must make Macintosh a standard. But no personal computer company, not even IBM, can create a standard without independent support. Even though Apple realized this, they have not been able to gain the independent support required to be perceived as a standard."
Of course, Apple didn't license the Mac OS, so Microsoft was compelled to make its own. The memo with the request whose denial led to Windows was dated June 25, 1985.
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History indeed is a bitter pill to swallow. Whatever Bill’s intent upon licensing Mac OS remain a mystery for us all. No one knows for sure if he was determined to make the Mac OS the “standard” or eventually “clone” it just like OS/2 Warp was.
John Sculley, in his keen eyes, perhaps had a good reason to shy from Bill’s grand idea. We will never know for sure.
I find it funny actually that a lot of people never knew that Apple was the first to come out with a windows based OS. It was actually a huge breakthrough and all over the news. Today, really its like only the hardcore Apple users that know this.
I honestly believe that it was all the money Bill Gates spent on marketing Windows 95 that caused people to believe that Microsoft was the original. They also went after Apple when they were vunerable and sort of took a strong hold on copying features in the Mac OS. I know there is a lot more here to the story, but all details aside, after all, im only one many opinions here, but i think a lot of people would agree that Apple would more likely spend their money on Research and Development then to spend it on marketing. This of course goes back to when Apple was a real underdog. I realize that today, business is booming for Apple with the iPod. I think its well deserved and it makes me excited to see where Apple goes next, considering they probably have some room to move.
I think its good that Apple has a small percentage of the market share. Really its all the Artists, Musicians etc… all the creative people that widely use Macs… And it makes sense that they do. They Think Different! As does Apple. As an artist myself, Apple made it possible for me to do bigger and better things…not Microsoft.
Its pretty ironic when i hear people say things like…“but the Mac seems so complicated?!”. It’s really like….Woah?! Complicated?! The Apple platform was always elegant and simple. Hello?! One mouse button. It was Microsoft that, in their horrible attempt to copy the Mac OS without infringing on copyrights and patents, in effect ended up with a complicated OS. Once people got used to that, its like for people to understand that the Mac is simpler to use is like beating a dead horse. Most common thing ive heard a PC user say when showing them simple things on a Mac, like burning a CD or Creating a slideshow of my photos….“huh?!......thats it?!....thats all you do?!”. Replys like that used to send me off on rants similar to this one, but these days i usually just say…...“Ummm…Yup. That simple.” Can you imagine what would happen if everyone knew all the bigger things the Mac is capable of. Im almost glad most don’t. Id rather see Apple always be the underdog. Always be a little hungry. Its when your down that you shine the best.
I’ll end my babbling here, sorry if i seem talkative or overprotective of Apple, just can help it really.
...i can only imagine how funny it must have been to see people on Wall Street scrambling to get a hold of Apple stock after the iPod set sail. Im no financial expert by any means, but i do know that for a long time Wall Street turned a blind eye to Apple. Its all those that had faith in the company, probably mostly creative people, that invested in Apple back when they were like 2 dollars a share.
“I find it funny actually that a lot of people never knew that Apple was the first to come out with a windows based OS.”
If you are reffering to a “WINDOWS BASED OS” as one with windows, clickable objects and a GUI, then you should probably look back to the people who developed the idea, Xerox. NOTICE, I never said Apple or microsoft stole the GUI but we all know who started it… XEROX. Take off your mac robe and come into the real world.
Hahah…my “mac robe”...well im not an idiot…yes i do know that Zerox had a windows “CONCEPT” for a digital screen on a copy machine….Not for a personal computer….i didnt want to “digg” into this that far, but since you brought it up….. ZEROX didnt have the VISION NECESSARY to take it too the next level and as such, was ready to can the whole idea. It was APPLE that saw the potential and took it to the next level…..ummm…not Microsoft. They were busy figuring out how to steal?....ummm…DOS.
....and to anyone that wants to point out that i referred to “XEROX” as “ZEROX”.....to that i say…...fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
...the real world? you mean like those reality TV shows? Thats the real world isn’t it? Hey soon you will be able to download all the reality you want…. right from the iTunes Video Store .....mmmmmmmwwwwaahhhhhhahahahahahahahahaha…..
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“...I know there is a lot more here to the story, but all details aside, after all, im only one many opinions here…”
Not to rain on mac fanboys but didn’t amiga have a graphical operating system well before Apple?.
The amiga 1000 came out in 1985, the Mac in 1984 and the Lisa in 1983.
“that Zerox had a windows “CONCEPT” for a digital screen on a copy machine….Not for a personal computer….”
The Xerox Star, the machine that Xerox used to introduce the GUI and from which Apple and Microsoft gained inspiration for their respective operating systems, was a personal computer, not a copy machine.
Oops, that should have read “Xerox Alto”, which preceded the Star.
cool, #10 no
ok ok… Xerox Star, a computer or copy machine… uuggg… either way you lay it out on the table… the bottom line is that ultimately Steve Jobs, the Woz and Apple were the people that actually brought this idea of a windows GUI to both personal and business computers successfully…Xerox was ready to dump the idea completely…. Apple was already on that road… so they had some help from other innovators, big deal… the point is that they did it with style, with heart, and in my book did it because they were inspired to do something innovative. I have respect for people and a company like that.
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