[Gllug] Re: Gates to get Knighthood!!! (Andrew Halliwell)

[Jack Bertram]

* Richard Jones <rich at annexia.org> [050302 17:38]:
> The graphical user interface (GUI) was neither a Microsoft invention,
> nor was it even "brought to the masses" by Microsoft.  Apple were the
> first to commercialise and mass-produce it (in 1984 - the concepts
> were nearly 15 years old even then).  In fact even as late as 1990 it
> wasn't particularly uncommon to find DOS-based text only PCs.

Everything you say is true - but when the explosion in GUI use came
about, it was Windows 3.0 and then Windows 95 that catalysed it, not
Apple.  [1990 is spot on - that was the year Windows 3.0 was released,
if I remember correctly.  I was still using WordPerfect 5.1 in those
days...]

> Microsoft's actual legacy is a company which siphons off billions from
> the world economy each year into their bank accounts

Microsoft is immensely profitable, true, and the courts have ruled
against its business practices on a number of occasions.  That's because
monopolies generate less wealth than properly competitive markets.
However, Microsoft has also generated a lot of wealth through its
activities, and I don't see the problem with acknowledging that.  It may
even have generated more wealth than a collection of less competent
companies that may hypothetically have been there without it.

What's the hurry to see everything in black and white?

jack
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