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Apple went to Xerox and asked to see what they were doing, and were granted permission to see it. Apple didn't get to see it for free either, I forget what was needed to allow Apple in, but it was more than a smile and a quick phone call.
Not only that, Apple did "invent" certain aspects of the UI that weren't needed by Xerox, such as the scroll bar and pull down menus.
Xerox also took cues from others as well, such as the mouse and where they got some ideas too. There are a series of interesting videos from the late 60's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4kp9Ciy1nE).
We are all standing on the shoulders of giants or as Bono once said, we are stealing from the thieves...
That's the point. Apple and its zealots believe Apple invented everything and everybody is else is stealing from poor Apple - while in fact, Apple hasn't invented anything in its entire existence. Apple has always built upon work done by others, improving what was already being developed by academia and startups - in many cases work paid for by tax money.
I actually have no issues with that - that's what companies are supposed to do - but what I do have issues with is the fact that even Apple itself now seems to believe it "invents" things, and "owns" the work it has 'stolen' (Apple zealot parlance) from others.
Nobody is saying that, in fact quite the opposite. What this points to, is that Steve was all too happy to "steal" from others while going ballistic when someone "stole" from him.
Ideas should not be something you can steal. Everybody has ideas and a lot of people have the same ideas. It is when how and where you make it that makes the difference. If everybody makes a product based on the same idea how would you choose between them?





Member since:
2008-05-03
The ideas behind the Macintosh was stoken from Rank Xerox. What irony. History repeats itself.