New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

Some of you might be following the buzz around Apple's extreme litigation cases going on right now. Here's something Andrew (lizardboy) shared with me on another forum. I thought I'd share it here also. Did Apple (after Woz) actually invent anything?

It's the same with Microsoft too, most major innovations since about 1981 had been in response to something else and/or used technology purchased from others. A friend of mine who started his career in the DEC PDP generation challenged me on that - but still hasn't come forward with anything

To me both companies are just really good money factories. I've been thinking about it a lot because I heard a new movie was coming out called 'jOBS', and was thinking I'd much rather watch one called 'GARY/KILLDALL'.

I have this conversation quite often with people in the industry. Innovation is so thrown around now, when in reality, all the major software and hardware giants simply do is take other companies ideas (Through reverse engineering or purchasing of said company) and introduce foreign tech into their own product lines.

Look at the iPad. Microsoft introduced one many years ago but at the time, the current tech made the product clunky and quite frankly a pointless device. Back in 87, in Star Trek - The Next Generation, remember the tablets they used to walk around with? People claim SteveJ came up with a revolutionary idea and they called the device "magical." All they did was take other peoples ideas, with matured technology and released a tablet.