"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"?
Bill Gates.
In the late 70s, Xerox at Palo Alto, California, pioneered the first graphical user interface or GUI for the future of computing. At that time, most computers ran arcane unfriendly text-based command prompts (Pre MS-DOS era) using only the keyboard. But Xerox turned the dial to eleven, by introducing a new pointing device called the mouse which allowed users to manipulate any objects on the screen. With this breakthrough invention, Xerox truly achieved something unique for mankind.
The only catch is, they failed to ship it.
So in 1979, Xerox invited Apple for a tour and showcased their brand-new invention to Steve Jobs who 'ripped off' the idea of the GUI right into the Apple Lisa he spearheaded back then for business users but failed miserably. Until 1984, when Apple released the famous and overly expensive Macintosh for the messes. While their competitors still relied on arcane text-based command prompts, the Macintosh used a bit-mapped graphics display. Individual applications appeared in floating, resizable, and overlapping windows, instead of fully occupying the screen. The interface was optimized for manipulation via the mouse, not the keyboard.
In order for the Apple Macintosh to thrive, they needed third-party developers, and Microsoft was the top provider. Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, Microsoft blossomed into a million-dollar software provider and used the BASIC language to support every personal computing platform available at that time. When Macintosh was released in 1984, Microsoft started porting their fledgling software like Multiplan, Word, and Excel to Mac.
But Bill Gates had another bright idea in mind.
 Suggested Reading: Long before Steven Sinofsky took the helm of the Office Division, the legendary Mike Maples Sr. drove Microsoft's Application Division to the pinnacle of success. As a former IBM executive, who joined Redmond on labor day in 1988, Maples was the inspiration for many within the company, including his son Mike Maples Jr. Find out more on our pilot episode of Microsoft Legends here. |
While Microsoft was still providing software for the Mac, Gates' troop worked closely with Steve Jobs' in order to refine Macintosh's user interface. They defined various on-screen elements that we're all familiar with now, like the radio buttons, dialog boxes, and the doublewide outline around the default buttons. Because Microsoft kept supporting this new platform, they learned as time went by how to improve the user interface, and why not create their own operating system with all that they acquired while working with Apple? (The same thing happened with Sony when developing Nintendo Play Station peripheral add-on in the late 80s.) After all, Microsoft's revenues came from selling software for Macintosh, and they amassed enough capital for Gates's Research and Development division to start thinking about making an in-house' serious competitor for Apple.
So works on what would be "Interface Manager", an add-on, that is to say, a piece of software that acted as a layer and sit on the top of the venerable MS-DOS, started in 1981 when a computer scientist Chase Bishop invented the first electronic model for Microsoft. in 1983, Microsoft announced Windows. And Apple became downright suspicious.
It took Microsoft two years to create the first version of Windows. They were late at the party, as the niche market for the operating system was already filled with fierce competitors. Apple Lisa and Macintosh were selling at higher prices and the runners-up like VisiCorp had released several DOS-like graphical shells in an attempt to capitalize on the GUI hoopla and make PCs more friendly.
So Microsoft had a lot of homework to do since the first version of Windows was less sophisticated and really worse in design as compared to Macintosh. It would lack some of that system’s more advanced and useful features, like support for overlapping windows. Instead, on-screen windows could only be tiled onscreen.
But Windows stood a very little chance against Apple. After some initial excitement in 1984, The Macintosh bombed due to a lack of resources, compatible applications, and higher prices. Steve Jobs was ousted a year after the first version of Windows was released.
With no viable competitors in sight, Microsoft engineers went back to the lab and started improving the GUI for the upcoming version of Windows. In the meantime, Gates hit his first billion mark in his bank account and went on a recruiting trip with his lieutenants for the greatest minds around the block. David Cutler from DEC and Mike Maples from IBM joined the Microsoft bandwagon in 1988, while Jim Alchin followed suit in 1991. With Windows 3.0 achieving considerable success in the early 90s, these legends would drive the success of Windows and Office ever further for the future and beyond.
Sofiane M. MEROUANI