NewtonTalk.net July 2009 archive: Re: [NTLK] credit where it's d

From: <Reilly001os_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue Jul 14 2009 - 04:38:59 EDT

>But in the end, all is well, because everything worked itself out, and we wouldn't have OS X if it wasn't for NEXT!
I used classic (system 7.5 and system 6 I think) on school computers and my first ibook shipped with OS9/osx 10.1 so I've used OS9 for extended periods too. I would've preferred them fixing/redesigning classic and staying with a "no command-line" OS. As many have stated, for as many steps Mac OS X goes forward, it also goes backward, look at all the OS9 finder features that OSX is just now catching up on (but still short in some areas). Look at the grip bars that used to tell you where you could grab or resize a window which are now absent in osx, although interestingly enough I noticed the iphone OS has them when you can reorder a list on the right hand side. It seems some times that osx is less focused on usablity and more focused on wiz bang flashy crap (I'm looking squarely at you leopard!). Everything doesn't need to be a super new flash bang media sensation production, sometimes when you need to carry water all you need is a sturdy bucket... I like the idea and implementation of mostly graphical OS sys
tems and that's why I always loved using the "school computers" (Macs), I'm not as excited about OSX because its got to much command line stuff to muck about with covered by whiz bang flash crap.

Joe Reilly
-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Vetter <physicalconstants@yahoo.ca>

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:47:13
To: <newtontalk@newtontalk.net>
Subject: Re: [NTLK] credit where it's due, was: More MacPad Rumors

Hi Peter:

Can we stop the quibbling!

Anyway, as far as I can tell from the research I have done, Sculley had very little to do with any of the tech on the Newton, or any other Apple product for that matter. Newton was all researched and developed in a secret 'warehouse' not far from Apple's headquarters. Sculley has actually been criticized for not participating more in the day-to-day affairs at Apple: many times he had little knowledge of what was happening with Apple - with its people and products. Jean-Louis Gassée would confront him on this, saying to Sculley that he had no idea how to work with people, and did not understand the products. That he was not respected by many people at Apple.

Not surprisingly, Jean-Louis Gassée left the company shortly after this confrontation with Sculley.

Sculley took a very executive approach to things and distanced himself from people and projects. Many think this was a significant cause of his downfall. In fact, during his last few years at Apple, he was tired and disinterested in the company and the industry. He was looking for a way out, according to interviews with his secretary.

Credit for Newton can be given to all the engineers that worked on it, including key people like Steve Capps, Steve Sakoman and Michael Tchao.

Steve Jobs, of course, is totally different. He is involved in much of what happens at Apple at the grass roots level. He is even mentioned on several of Apple's patents as a sole or co-inventor. As Jobs states, Apple does not do market research, they just make products that they want to use, and it just so happens others like them too.

Sculley, on the other hand, had a bit of an old school approach to business. In addition, he approved too many dead-end research projects that sucked up tons of money, hurting Apple as the years went on. He just did not really know what he was doing - what the market wanted, or was going to want (tech predictions).

Sculley was simply too myopic and disinterested in technology (in the long-term) to be effective. But what we can credit him for is allowing the Newton project to go forward, and the conception of the Knowledge Navigator, but even that is a result of a group of thinkers who put all the pieces together.

Jobs has himself to blame though, because he hunted Sculley down to work at Apple. On that instance, while Apple was in total chaos, complete with constant infighting - childish squabbles - Sculley was simply too far on the other end of the management style spectrum to be a good, long-term option for Apple. A short-term consultant or interim-CEO? Sure. A long-term option for Apple? No. But sooner, rather than later, Sculley, through his insensitive and dogmatic approach, ousted Jobs from Apple. That was Sculley's mistake, and as far as I can tell from one of his last public interviews about things at Apple, he realizes that now: that he was in over his head, and Steve was the real master, not him.

But in the end, all is well, because everything worked itself out, and we wouldn't have OS X if it wasn't for NEXT!

Ryan

--- On Mon, 7/13/09, Peter Fraser <pjfraser@mac.com> wrote:

> From: Peter Fraser <pjfraser@mac.com>
> Subject: [NTLK] credit where it's due, was: More MacPad Rumors
> To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
> Received: Monday, July 13, 2009, 6:56 PM
> It would be interesting to ask some
> of the people who were part of the Newton team how much of
> the KN and PDA the pepsi man actually did invent
> himself. He was a marketer, not an engineer, but
> perhaps he had some conceptual input.
>
> Are we're also here in this forum because of Reagan, Bush
> #1, and Clinton, since they were the overall leaders during
> that time period. Who was the UN General Secretary
> back then, Boutros-Boutros Ghali?
>
> -- Peter
> pjfraser@mac.com
>
>
> On Monday, July 13, 2009, at 03:34PM, "RCMP_Mike" <rcmpmike@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >Peter,
> >
> >Sculley was the driving force behind the Knowledge
> Navigator concept which
> >went on to become Newton PDA. In fact Personal
> Digital Assistant was coined
> >by Sculley.
> >
> >So we are here because of Sculley AND Apple.
> >
> >--------------------------------------------------
> >From: "Peter Fraser" <pjfraser@mac.com>
> >Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 17:57
> >To: <newtontalk@newtontalk.net>
> >Subject: Re: [NTLK] More MacPad Rumors
> >
> >> ...we're in this forum because of something that
> happened at Apple while
> >> Sculley was there, but at the end of the day, it's
> because of Apple.
> >>
> >> I didn't mention Jobs, actually.
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >====================================================================
>
> >The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://www.newtontalk.net/
> >The Official Newton FAQ    - http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/
> >The Newton Glossary
>    - http://www.splorp.com/newton/glossary/
> >WikiWikiNewt
> - http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
> >====================================================================
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ====================================================================
>
> The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://www.newtontalk.net/
> The Official Newton FAQ    - http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/
> The Newton Glossary    -
> http://www.splorp.com/newton/glossary/
> WikiWikiNewt
> - http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
> ====================================================================
>
>
>
>

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