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by gvb 4269 days ago
There is a Macintosh in the background of the picture "JUST KIDS Gates and former C.E.O. Steve Ballmer at Microsoft’s offices in Bellevue, 1985."

Not unexpected given the date and the relationship between Apple and Microsoft at the time, but interesting that it shares the desk (albeit off in a corner) with the IBM-PC.
1 comments
melling 4269 days ago
Microsoft was busy copying the Macintosh in 1985. Late in the year Windows 1.0 was released.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0

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outside1234 4269 days ago
I can tell they brainwashed you well in Cupertino. ;) They probably left out the part where Jobs borrowed the ideas for the Mac from Xerox I suspect too.

More accurately, there is probably a Mac here because they were building Office for it.

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melling 4269 days ago
Nah. All the cool kids in the 80's wanted the Amiga. The Mac was a toy. The story of Jobs' visit to Xerox Parc is well documented. They paid a million dollars for the visits.

http://www.macstories.net/linked/parc-scientist-larry-tesler...

http://www.cultofmac.com/126863/in-defense-of-steve-jobs/

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Keyframe 4269 days ago
People tend to forget there were many players out there back in the day. Amoga was so far ahead in 'multimedia' infront of Pc and Mac that it's not even comparable until 486 era. Not to mention SGI and Sun machines. Pretending that Mac was some kind of single origin of everything or Pc being a toure de force is just wrong.
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ido 4268 days ago
Or the atari st! Like a mac only at 1/3 the price :)
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WorldWideWayne 4269 days ago
As Microsoft surpassed Apple and of course Amiga to become the absolute necessity of practicality that they are today, I don't think they cared as much about what the "cool kids" wanted.

I think it's apparent and I am thankful that Microsoft didn't copy Apple's UI and instead went with a much more practical and utilitarian approach than Apple. This along with Microsoft's business model obviously works better for the mass market and has stood the test of time whereas Apple has capitulated many times both on their UI principles and on their business model.

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jimbokun 4269 days ago
At the moment, the Apple business model is far out in front of the Microsoft business model, from a sheer profit perspective.
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WorldWideWayne 4268 days ago
That's great that Apple is making money. How does that affect your life?

I'm just so glad that I don't see Apple computers when I walk into 90% of the offices around the world where their business model simply couldn't survive.

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johan_larson 4269 days ago
Microsoft has been supporting the Mac for a long time. Word 1.0 has run on the Mac since 1984. Some relationships are complicated.
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