The personal computer is one of the greatest
inventions of the 20th century. While Apple and Microsoft are the kings of
the present day personal computer, the innovations that allowed them to dominate the industry
were actually not their own. Today we’ll explore a story that is as famous
as it is misunderstood: how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates stole from Xerox. This video is brought to you by Blue Apron. The first 50 people to sign up with the link
below will get $40 off their first two weeks. Toward the end of the 1960s, while Steve Jobs
and Bill Gates were still in high school, Xerox was an industry titan in the copier
world. They had created the first commercially viable
copy machine in 1959 and had spent the next decade establishing a virtual monopoly across
America, reaping over half a billion dollars in sales per year. However, Xerox’s patents eventually expired,
allowing cheaper brands from Japan to challenge their monopoly. In the face of this challenge, Xerox management
gave their chief scientist, Jack Goldman, a blank check to develop any new technology
that could keep Xerox on top. Thus, in 1970, Jack created the Palo Alto
Research Center, or PARC for short, and set about assembling the brightest minds in the
world of computer science. One of the researchers at PARC who would later
cofound Adobe, said that “The atmosphere was electric – there was total intellectual
freedom. Almost every idea was up for challenge and
got challenged regularly.” In this innovative environment, the PARC researchers
set out to work on groundbreaking computer technology like the computer mouse, ethernet
networking, and (most important to our story) the graphical user interface, or GUI. There was only one problem––Xerox management
wasn’t interested in any of PARC’s developments. The company saw no reason to focus on anything
else but their incredibly successful line of copiers. But PARC didn't give up; instead, they soldiered
on and created one product that incorporated all of their inventions: the Xerox Alto. It was a computer way ahead of its time; it
featured the keyboard and mouse interface we still use today, while also offering access
to email, word processing, and event reminders. But once again, the Xerox managers in upstate
New York didn’t care at all. They looked at the Alto and saw an overly
complicated workstation that would cost $40,000 a piece. Xerox funded the production of only 2,000
machines and never went ahead with a commercial release. The only thing the Xerox managers were interested
in were printer and copier innovations, and while they did eventually get what they wanted,
the researchers at PARC were far from happy. It seemed like all of their breakthroughs
had gone to waste. Many of them left: either to start their own
companies or to join the many rising tech ventures of Silicon Valley. However, PARC’s contributions weren’t
all for nothing. The research center had made quite the name
for itself among techies, and eventually, Steve Jobs caught wind of what they were doing. Now, at the time Steve was busy with both
the Lisa and Macintosh projects at Apple. At first he was very skeptical of Xerox and
refused to visit PARC himself, but after several of his employees went there to witness the
miracle with their own eyes, he agreed to join them. Jobs visited PARC in late 1979, and I’ll
let the man himself share how he reacted. “I had three or four people who kept bugging
me that I ought to get my rear over to Xerox PARC and see what they were doing, and so
I finally did, I went over there. And they were very kind and they showed me
what they were working on and they showed me really three things, but I was so blinded
by the first one that I didn't even really see the other two. One of the things they showed me was object
oriented programming; they showed me that, but I didn't even see that. The other one they showed me was really a
networked computer system; they had over a hundred Alto computers all networked, using
email, etc. etc. I didn't even see that. I was so blinded by the first thing they showed
me, which was the graphical user interface. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen
in my life. Now, remember, it was very flawed; what we
saw was incomplete; they'd done a bunch of things wrong, but we didn't know that at the
time. It's still though, they had the germ of the
idea was there and they'd done it very well. And within, you know, ten minutes, it was
obvious to me that all computers would work like this, someday. It was obvious.” He knew PARC was onto something great, and
he wanted a piece of it for himself. After the initial meeting, Jobs arranged for
his entire programming team to be given full technical demos. In exchange, he sold 100,000 shares of Apple
to Xerox, and the Xerox management was none the wiser. One of the PARC researchers giving the demos,
recalled, “After an hour looking at demos, they understood our technology and what it
meant more than any Xerox executive understood after years of showing it to them.” Now, at the same time Microsoft was working
with Apple as the first third party software developer for the upcoming Macintosh. Much like Apple, Microsoft had snatched a
lot of former PARC employees, and Bill Gates was well aware of the Xerox Alto and its innovations. Steve Jobs knew that, so he made Microsoft
sign an agreement as part of their deal in 1981: Microsoft couldn’t release mouse-based
software until a year after the Mac’s introduction, which the contract stated would happen in
the fall of 1983. However, Apple’s lawyers had forgotten to
account for the potential of project delays. And that’s exactly what happened––the
Mac’s release date got pushed back, but the contract date stayed the same. The Macintosh wouldn’t debut until 1984,
while in November 1983 Microsoft made a surprise announcement at Comdex, the industry's premier
trade show. There, Bill Gates unveiled a graphical user
interface environment he called Windows, and along with it a mouse-based word processor
called Microsoft Word. Steve Jobs was naturally very upset and filed
a suit, but eventually the courts cleared Gates of any wrongdoing. When Steve confronted Gates and accused him
of theft, Gates made a rather famous statement: “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.” Now, the real question is whether we can consider
what Bill and Steve did as theft. This is where internet myth and reality collide,
for in fact the Palo Alto Research Center was pretty open about its inventions. Unlike what the Steve Jobs biopics show, the
Xerox Alto was openly demoed to over 2,000 people in 1975 alone. Nevertheless, it’s clear that without the
contributions of Xerox PARC, many of the technological advances we take for granted now would not
have been possible. It’s thanks to these innovations that we
today have amazing services like Blue Apron. Every week they can ship farm-fresh ingredients
to you alongside creative and delicious recipes that can be cooked in less than 40 minutes. All your ingredients arrive in this neat little
box, all refrigerated of course, and you can choose from 8 unique recipes every week. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to cook
healthy meals without all the hassle of grocery shopping, Blue Apron is the service for you. In fact, as a courtesy to Business Casual
viewers, the link in the description of this video will get you $40 off from your first
two weeks of Blue Apron, so that you can see firsthand just how convenient it really is. So, click on that link and check Blue Apron
out; doing so would not only be great for you, but you'll also be helping to support
Business Casual. In any case, I want to give a big shout out
to my patrons on Patreon and to viewers like you for watching. If you’ve got a particular business story
you’d like me to cover next please write that down in the comments below. Anyhow, thanks for watching, and until next
time: stay smart.
I mean no disrepect to the previous narrator, I think he does an amazing job, but I really think your voice suits the channel better (it's more distinct, maybe brand recognition?). As such, I enjoyed this video a lot!
u/JK_Business_Casual
Why is there a trap?
https://i.imgur.com/WYWxn7H.jpg
My question is this. Why was the video late?