2 ms·

And that plan worked so well that Apple went almost bankrupt one year later and had to be rescued by a fund infusion from Microsoft.

kalleboo 9y ago
The story about the $150 million from Microsoft is actually a lot more interesting than that - it wasn't widely reported but it was actually a settlement for a lawsuit in which Microsoft (possibly unwittingly - the job was performed by a contractor) ripped off code from QuickTime.
- hota_mazi 9y ago
  Since the lawsuit was dropped by Apple, we'll never really know if it had any merit (and it was not about stolen code but GUI copying).
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    There was another lawsuit in addition to the GUI "Look and feel" one. Apple contracted a company to port QuickTime to Windows. Intel/Microsoft then contracted the same company to optimize Video for Windows, and they reused QuickTime code which then shipped with Windows. http://thisdayintechhistory.com/12/06/apple-sues-over-quicktime/ http://thisdayintechhistory.com/12/06/apple-sues-over-quickt...
    - hota_mazi 9y ago
      Again, this is just Apple suing but we never know the outcome in court. At the end of the day, both Microsoft and Apple reused ideas they found at Xerox. To quote Bill Gates himself about the situation: "Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."
      - valuearb 9y ago
        Truth was more that the neighbor had a stereo, Jobs turned it into a TV wile copying it, and Gates made a poor copy of the TV. The Alto relied on a command line for most operations, no Finder, no trash can, only had a handful of GUI applications, could only handle rectangular regions so no complex controls or menus, and was slower and far more expensive than the Macintosh.
valuearb 9y ago
Apple had $1.5B in cash in 1997. The Microsoft payment was way less important and bankruptcy much farther away than you think.

kalleboo 9y ago

The story about the $150 million from Microsoft is actually a lot more interesting than that - it wasn't widely reported but it was actually a settlement for a lawsuit in which Microsoft (possibly unwittingly - the job was performed by a contractor) ripped off code from QuickTime.

hota_mazi 9y ago
Since the lawsuit was dropped by Apple, we'll never really know if it had any merit (and it was not about stolen code but GUI copying).
- kalleboo 9y ago
  There was another lawsuit in addition to the GUI "Look and feel" one. Apple contracted a company to port QuickTime to Windows. Intel/Microsoft then contracted the same company to optimize Video for Windows, and they reused QuickTime code which then shipped with Windows. http://thisdayintechhistory.com/12/06/apple-sues-over-quicktime/ http://thisdayintechhistory.com/12/06/apple-sues-over-quickt...
  - hota_mazi 9y ago
    Again, this is just Apple suing but we never know the outcome in court. At the end of the day, both Microsoft and Apple reused ideas they found at Xerox. To quote Bill Gates himself about the situation: "Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."
    - valuearb 9y ago
      Truth was more that the neighbor had a stereo, Jobs turned it into a TV wile copying it, and Gates made a poor copy of the TV. The Alto relied on a command line for most operations, no Finder, no trash can, only had a handful of GUI applications, could only handle rectangular regions so no complex controls or menus, and was slower and far more expensive than the Macintosh.

valuearb 9y ago

Apple had $1.5B in cash in 1997. The Microsoft payment was way less important and bankruptcy much farther away than you think.