It's Official...Macs ARE PCs!

[legion]

The last vestige of the old Mac is now gone:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140686/apple-doubles-mouse-buttons

[stevepaa]

Weren't they the original personal computer?
IBM just ripped off the term PC.

[bryanthompson]

I use a Logitech Mx900 bluetooth, like, 7 button bluetooth mouse, although I sometimes still find myself ctrl + left clicking to bring up properties. It's habit.

Apple needs to find a way to steal MS's 'easy-infect' (TM) virus [strikethrough]production[/strikethrough] protection scheme to truly become PC-like.

[RickM]

Apple ripped off the Mouse idea from Xerox research in Palo Alto.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by RickM
Apple ripped off the Mouse idea from Xerox research in Palo Alto.

Not to mention the GUI idea...

[arcsine]

If the brass at Xerox had any foresight, we never would of heard of Apple & Jobs nor Microsoft & Gates.

Legend is Jobs went to the Xerox PARC and saw a working mouse-driven, GUI-interfaced computer. Went back to Wozniak and said he had seen the future. Xerox had no patents and cancelled the project soon after and the rest is history.

And I was using a two-button mouse on my Mac eight years ago.

[RickM]

Originally posted by arcsine

Legend is Jobs went to the Xerox PARC and saw a working mouse-driven, GUI-interfaced computer. Went back to Wozniak and said he had seen the future.

That's the story.

How does Gates and Microsoft figure in?

[arcsine]

If Xerox had pushed forward with the techology and lead the development, IBM never would have gotten a foothold and Microsoft never would have written DOS.
There is the possibility is they would have written a DOS-type thing for Xerox, but the landscape would be different.

[1967 R50/2]

Originally posted by RickM


How does Gates and Microsoft figure in?

Gates ripped off Apple when he created Windows.

[Az911]

Originally posted by arcsine
If Xerox had pushed forward with the techology and lead the development, IBM never would have gotten a foothold and Microsoft never would have written DOS.
There is the possibility is they would have written a DOS-type thing for Xerox, but the landscape would be different.

MS did not write DOS they bought from a small software company

[alf]

Early bird gets the worm and the second mouse gets the cheese.

Many more things go into making a business successful than just technology and a good idea.

[stomachmonkey]

It's about friggiin time.

I'm a die hard Mac guy but even I think they needed a 2 button mouse.

1 button is fine for mom but power users need the multiple buttons.

I've always been frustrated with the lack of quality found in non Apple mice, they never felt right and were not that good.

I used to use a Razer, awesome mouse but ergonomics are better for twitch gaming.

Current mouse is the Logitech Media mouse, good price point, optical, wireless, good battery life, great ergonimcs for graphic and multimedia and 13 programamble buttons that you can program using USB Overdrive.

And yes MS did not write DOS, they bought it, did some tweaks on it and licensed it to IBM. The license was the key.

IBM mistakenly thought the hardware was the key and did not buy DOS outright. That lead to the hardware being reverse engineered and MS was able to license to other manufacturers and boom, off to the races.

[RickM]

Without using Google...

In an effort to salvage the IBMers trip to meet another company for an OS Gates remembered a guy who owned a Computer shop of some sort who was dabbled in Micro Computer OS development. Gates promises to deliver an OS to IBM and makes a deal with the guy to pay for the use of a very immature version of DOS. This would be enough to get off the ground with IBM. Much needed to be done to refine the OS for public consumption.
Gates then hires the DOS author who signs the standard "Whatever I write/develop is the company's property" agreement. That and and promise of employment went a long way.

As for saying that if Xerox pushed their experiments to market Gates and MS wouldn't be here is a bit of a stretch. There's alot of IF there.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
It's about friggiin time.

I'm a die hard Mac guy but even I think they needed a 2 button mouse.

1 button is fine for mom but power users need the multiple buttons.

I've always been frustrated with the lack of quality found in non Apple mice, they never felt right and were not that good.

Yes Apple makes great mice, but I'm using a cheesy Chinese "mini optical mouse" on my PowerBook that has a second button and a scroll wheel. I just plugged it in and it works. No drivers. It gives me all the 'right click' stuff a PC has. so Macs are ready for a two-button mouse, right out of the box.

[pwd72s]

I wish to stress than I am NOT a computer literate. So, how does this change weigh in as far as Apple's renowned "virus resistance" goes?

[techweenie]

Originally posted by pwd72s
I wish to stress than I am NOT a computer literate. So, how does this change weigh in as far as Apple's renowned "virus resistance" goes?

The second mouse button is the source of all viruses, trojans, worms, spyware and adware.

[pwd72s]

Thanks. So, you're saying to not click right???

[techweenie]

Nah, just joshin'

The immunity to viruses is due to the fact the Mac OS is built on well-developed and understood Unix software. There are vulnerabilities in all operating systems, and Apple acts quickly on vulnerabilities when they are merely 'theoretical' which means no virus has ever successfuly worked on OSX, ever.

However, Macs are only in about 17% of corporations and represent only about 7% of PCs in use, so it's not as big a target for malicious virus-makers as Windows-based stuff is. However, it helps that Windows was incredibly poorly written from a security standpoint.

[alf]

Originally posted by pwd72s
Thanks. So, you're saying to not click right???

Techweenie was kidding. Mice buttons do not cause viruses.

Apples are not as virus prone because there aren't too many of them around. Thus virus writers do not get the same bang for the buck.

I like Apples, they have nice industrial design.

alf

[pwd72s]

Thanks guys, I'm just trying to learn here...