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Back in the 1980s Apple used to write checks to the people who were coming up with the fundamentally important pieces of its eco-system. Bill Atkinson (Hypercar

Back in the 1980s Apple used to write checks to the people who were coming up with the fundamentally important pieces of its eco-system. Bill Atkinson (Hypercard) got money even after he left Apple. The application switcher, the drop down menu: Apple paid individual engineers to get these bits of functionality. If Apple was smart, it would continue to subsidize apps that are central to its eco-system. That includes Homebrew.

rasz 4y ago
It wasnt charity, and Jobs was underpaying while indimidating people. https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Switcher.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor... "OK, I've seen enough, " Steve interrupted me. "It's great. Apple is going to bundle it with the Mac. Congratulations." But then he paused, and stared at me for a moment with an incredibly intense gaze, as if he was sizing me up or maybe just trying to scare me. "But I don't want you taking advantage of this situation. I'm not going to allow you to take advantage of Apple." "What do you mean?" I asked him, genuinely puzzled. "There's no way that you could have written that program without confidential information that you learned by working at Apple. You don't have the right to charge whatever you like for it." I started to get angry. "The program is only half finished, and if I don't think you're paying me fairly, I won't be motivated to finish it." Steve gave me another intense stare as he paused for a few seconds. Then he stated a single number, without explanation. "One hundred thousand dollars." "I don't know," I told him, "I think it's probably worth a lot more than that." "Don't argue with me. $100,000 is fair, and you know it."