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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).
by 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 agoThere 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 agoAgain, 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 agoTruth 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.