Tarn Tales: Apple vs Windows

I am old. Old enough to remember when a computer mouse was a wooden box and the internet made a screaming sound.

You kids argue about iPhone versus Android. Back in my day, the real fight was Apple versus Windows. And it was not about who made it better. It was about who stole it first.

Let me tell you the full story.

1. Xerox Built It First

In 1973, in a lab in Palo Alto called Xerox PARC, a group of engineers built a computer called the Alto.

It had everything we use today. Little pictures on the screen called icons. A pointer you moved with a box called a mouse. Windows you could open and close.

Xerox did not know what to do with it. They were a copier company. They thought the future was better copiers.

So the invention sat in that lab.

2. Steve Jobs Saw It And Copied It

In 1979, Steve Jobs walked into that lab. Xerox invited him.

He saw the Alto and he stopped talking. He saw the future.

He went back to Apple and told his team, we are building this. That became the Lisa in 1983, then the Macintosh in 1984. The first computer normal people could use without typing codes.

Apple did not invent the idea. Apple made it usable. That was their genius.

3. Then Bill Gates Copied The Copy

While Apple was building the Macintosh, Apple asked Microsoft to build software for it. Microsoft had access to early Macs.

Bill Gates saw it too. He went back and built Windows. Version 1.0 came out in 1985. It looked a lot like the Mac.

Steve Jobs was furious. He called Bill Gates and said, you robbed us.

Bill Gates replied with a line that still makes me laugh. He said, Steve, I think it is more like we both had a rich neighbor named Xerox, and I broke into his house to steal the TV, and I found out you had already stolen it.

4. Apple Sued Microsoft And Lost

In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft. They said Windows copied the look and feel of the Mac.

The case dragged on for years.

Microsoft's argument was simple. You did not invent it either. You got it from Xerox.

The judge agreed. Most of the lawsuit was dismissed in 1993. Apple lost.

That is how law works. If you copy a copy, you cannot complain that someone copied you.

5. Then Microsoft Saved Apple

Fast forward to 1997. Apple was dying. Really dying. They had 90 days of cash left. People were writing their obituary.

At a big conference, Steve Jobs announced something no one expected. Microsoft was investing 150 million dollars in Apple to keep it alive.

Microsoft saved Apple. The company they fought in court for years.

Why? Because Microsoft was in trouble with the government for being a monopoly. If Apple died, Microsoft would be the only one left. It was smarter to keep Apple alive.

That 150 million dollars kept Apple alive long enough to build the iMac, then the iPod, then the iPhone. Today Apple is worth more than 3 trillion dollars.

Tarn's Lesson

I have seen many companies come and go. Here is what this story teaches you.

Ideas are cheap. Xerox had the idea and did nothing. Apple made it simple. Microsoft made it cheap and put it everywhere.

Do not waste time suing over who had the idea first. Build it better. Ship it faster. Make people love it.

And sometimes, the person you fight today will save you tomorrow. Business is not personal. It is survival.

This is Tarn Tales. I was there. I will tell you more stories from when the internet was young.