It wasn't, unless you're completely ignoring the one thing that made OSX and NeXTStep unique, the OpenSTEP framework and Display Postscript/PDF GUI engine. That

It wasn't, unless you're completely ignoring the one thing that made OSX and NeXTStep unique, the OpenSTEP framework and Display Postscript/PDF GUI engine. That they were able to use these components made it possible to provide an operating system with a nice, well performing GUI running on a stable UNIX foundation. Had NeXTStep only been a warmed over UNIX, wouldn't it have been better for Apple to just use Linux and X11, or even better use A/UX which already had a Mac-like interface? Gruber is not really blaming Gates, he's blaming Isaacson for not doing proper research. He could have literally asked anyone for more information about this, and the answers he would have gotten would have provided more insight into what really happened and why Apple succeeded. It enabled Apple to have OSX running on Intel from day one, and it made launching the iPhone and iPad possible without reinventing the wheel (which is what Nokia, Microsoft, RIM and Palm all had to do in response to the iPhone).