Classic Systems Emulated : The Macintosh (All Is Not Well) : Microsoft Goes Gangsta
Continuing from the last article, there were more troubles for Apple still. Microsoft was working on their own graphical environment. Microsoft was no stranger to Apple's products. Microsoft provided the BASIC interpreter used on the Apple II, AppleSoft BASIC. Their Z80 SoftCard was a massive hit for those who wanted to run the CP/M operating system on there Apple II. In order to entice third-party developers, Apple needed to court Microsoft. On one hand, the Microsoft developers wrote some very landmark applications for the Macintosh. The redesigned versions of both the Multiplan spreadsheet and Word became critically acclaimed on the new platform. Excel would come a short time later and redefine spreadsheets. However, because Microsoft was a very early developer, they got much more in-depth access to Apple's Macintosh prototypes and their development environment. What Microsoft learned from those development kits were applied when creating their own GUI for the PC.
When Microsoft announced Windows at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas in late 1983, Jobs was outraged. However, as Andy Hertzfeld noted on his website, Microsoft were well within their legal right as Apple originally envisioned the Macintosh to being released in the Summer of 1982. As part of the original agreement. Microsoft wouldn't announced any mouse-based software for the PC until a year after the Mac's release. However, no provision were made to float the Macintosh release date in case their were development issues that caused launch delays (which happened). At this point, one could sum at that Microsoft already had better lawyers than Apple! Thus, as far as the contract was concerned, the Macintosh had already been released in Summer 1982 when Microsoft announced Windows in the Fall of 1983. Microsoft also announced mouse support for the DOS version of Word.
Despite the antagonized feelings, work continued. However, things would rapidly flair up again shortly after release. In the early-middle 80's, most computers shipped with a BASIC interpreter, and the Macintosh wasn't going to be any exception. As a result, work on MacBASIC began. This BASIC interpreter, written by Donn Denman, was very revolutionary as it took advantage of QuickDraw, allowing BASIC programs to make powerful use of the Macintosh GUI. Unfortunately, MacBASIC became yet another victim of Microsoft's business tactics.
At the time, the sales of the Macintosh continue to drop off. The few Macs that Apple was selling were purchased to run the Microsoft applications, like Word and Excel. For 1984-1985, the vast majority of Apple's revenue still came from the Apple II. The Apple II computers ran AppleSoft BASIC, which was made by Microsoft. The original contract was about to expire, and Apple would need to renew it if they wanted to use AppleSoft BASIC. Thousands upon thousands of BASIC programs used AppleSoft BASIC for compatibility. Thus, Microsoft realized that the ball was in their court. With the release of the Macintosh, Microsoft viewed MacBASIC as a very massive threat. Thus, with very strong leverage, Microsoft told Apple that they were not going to license AppleSoft BASIC unless they killed MacBASIC. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Apple capitulated and agreed to Microsoft's hostile terms. Microsoft BASIC for the Mac was later released, and was largely considered inferior to MacBASIC. MacBASIC made out to the open though and was widely circulated among software pirates, which their efforts in piracy have actually preserved this important piece of software history from being lost.
vTech
However, things didn't end their. A PC maker, vTech, made a clone of Apple's latest release of the II, the IIc. Called the Laser 128, the computer featured even better hardware than what Apple sold in the Apple IIc, like a faster CPU and a keyboard with a numerical keypad. dedicated video memory, and a Centronics printer port. However, in order to ensure near 100% compatibility, the vTech clone needed the system ROMS.
Back in 1982, a relatively new startup, Franklin Computer Corporation, released a clone of the Apple II+ that quickly became a massive hit in the marketplace. Called the ACE 100, the computer achieved 100% compatibility with the Apple II. However, this was only possible because Franklin's engineers directly cloned the Apple ROM BIOS for the II+, which is intellectual property of its respective company. Apple sued the company and Franklin lost the case. Thus, in order to get around any potential legal issue, vTech wrote a clean-room implementation of II's ROM BIOS from scratch that didn't use any Apple code whatsoever. That didn't stop Apple from suing vTech for intellectual theft. However, Apple didn't have a case against vTech since they didn't commit intellectual theft, and the lawsuit was dismissed. However, inn order to ensure compatibility with the Apple II, they still needed Applesoft BASIC, which was used for the thousands of BASIC programs.
Because Applesoft BASIC was written by Microsoft, vTech didn't need to go thru the Cupertino giant if they wanted to use it. Apple didn't hold exclusivity right to it either. As such, Microsoft was free to license Applesoft BASIC to vTech, which they later did. Thus, with Applesoft BASIC now, vTech was now legally free to sell an Apple II clone that was near 100% compatible with the Apple II. Not only that, vTech offered enhanced hardware upgrades that made their clones even more compelling than the parent systems sold by Apple. With the popularity of the Laser 128, software developers went out of their way to test our their programs on this machine. Apple was powerless against both vTech and Microsoft.
Windows (Again)
With the release of the Mac, GUI's quickly became all the rage. However, many didn't want to spend the astronomical amount of money that Apple demanded for the Mac. As such, their were companies that quickly cloned the look-and-feel of the Mac. The most well-known of these programs was GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) which was made by Digital Research, the makers of the CP/M operating system.
Digital Research was looking for a way to regain prominence. Digital Research was the largest software company in the late 70's with the CP/M operating system. Yet, when Microsoft beat Digital Research in the OS race to supply an OS for the IBM PC, MS-DOS quickly rose to prominence, and CP/M was losing significance. Their GUI would be their way to get back into the game.
GEM quickly become must-have software for the clones. It's success came from the fact that it had a wide hardware support along with a very intuitive user interface. GEM essentially duplicated the look-and-feel of the Macintosh Finder on an clone PC. Needless to say, to Apple, GEM looked to close like the Macintosh Finder and they quickly sued them. While they've been around a little longer than Apple, Digital Research wasn't the biggest of companies, so they didn't have the resources to take them on. They quickly capitulated and released a "lawsuit-friendly" version of GEM which removed the features that Apple considered offending, like the trash can and clean desktop.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was busy making their own GUI as well. Windows was inspired by products like Visi-On, an graphical environment that was announced during the Comdex Trade Show in 1982; along with the Xerox Star Document Processing System and the Apple Lisa. Windows would be Microsoft's entry into graphical computing. Back in 1979, Xerox granted Apple the right to tour their PARC facilities and demonstrate their research projects to Apple's engineers for one million dollars of stock. However, that offer just wasn't exclusive to Apple though. Xerox was also approached by Microsoft they demonstrated the SmallTalk programming environment to them as well.
Released in November 1985, Windows 1.0 took a very different approach to the GUI than DR did with GEM. Windows loaded with a program launcher called the MS-DOS Executive which also acted as the file manager. From their the programs would be launched as a tiled application. Their were no provisions for overlapping windows in Win1.x (except for dialog boxes).
Windows 1.0 quickly became a flop in the marketplace. While many saw it's potential, the initial release would have various issues. Windows 1.0 was buggy, bloated, and required a hard-disk to run, which was still a very expensive proposition in 1985. Windows 1.0 was very demanding on its hardware.
Despite it's lack of success in the marketplace, that didn't stop Apple from filing suit. However, by the time of the lawsuit, the ball was firmly in Microsoft's court. The sales of the Macintosh was near flat-lining, and the only reason why people were buying the Macs that were selling was to run the Microsoft applications. As such, Microsoft threatened Apple that if they didn't drop their lawsuit, they would stop selling their Macintosh programs. Apple quickly capitulated and dropped the lawsuit. However, Apple did force Microsoft to concede that Windows was inspired by the Apple Lisa.
However, Apple's troubles didn't end their. As part of the negotiation for the use of Applesoft BASIC, Microsoft forced Apple to license out the ideas of the GUI for Microsoft to use in their own software. The likes of both DR and Microsoft showed that you didn't need to buy a ultra-expensive Mac in order to have the privilege of using a GUI. While MacOS could only run on the Mac, Windows could run on various computers with widely different hardware configurations. Thus, while the Macintosh System Software would be restricted to the computers that Apple sold, people who wanted a GUI but didn't want to spend the money on a expensive Mac would buy a lower cost IBM compatible and run Windows on it.
However, Microsoft wouldn't reap the benefits of a GUI anyway. The first release of Windows was largely panned. Apple didn't have too much to worry about (yet). Running a graphical environment was a very demanding endeavor for the computers of the 80's.While the processing power to run such environments was available, their was a lot to be desired. The GUI would always be restricted by the hardware that they ran on. However, the rivalry between Microsoft and Apple would become much more intense as time went by.
A Rich Neighbor Named Xerox (Apple Folklore) : https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=A_Rich_Neighbor_Named_Xerox.txt
MacBasic (Apple Folklore) : https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=MacBasic.txt
Laser 128 (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_128
Franklin Electronic Publishers (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers
Applesoft BASIC (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applesoft_BASIC
Apple Lisa (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa
Xerox Star (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star
Visi On (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visi_On
Darkstar Emulator (Xerox Star Emulator): https://github.com/livingcomputermuseum/Darkstar
Idle Lisa Emulator : http://idle-lisa-emu.sourceforge.net/
Mini vMac : https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/
PCem : https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/
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