[LINK] Jobs not all bad

[Fred Pilcher]

On 10/10/2011 10:54 AM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 00:39, Stephen Wilson<swilson at lockstep.com.au>  wrote:
>> He whinges that all Jobs did was repackage and market existing
>> technologies.  Would Fred seriously demean the Apple II as mere
>> repackaging of existing technologies?  I'm happy to admit that the Apple
>> II changed my life, and absolutely I subscribe to the idea it
>> revolutionised computing.
>
> Well, we disagree. Where do the above statement leaves the Commodore
> 8-bit computers and the 16-bit Commodore Amiga revolution?.

This was a point I made to Steve in my offline e-mail responding to his 
invitation to discuss specific issues:

"I had a Commodore PET. The introduction of personal computers was a 
wonderful thing and it (not the PET, in particular) changed my life - 
and the lives of millions - too. But if I hadn't had a PET, I would have 
had something else, just as you would have had if you hadn't had an 
Apple II; the outcome would have been the same. There was nothing unique 
about the Apple II or its influence on you that wouldn't have been 
fulfilled by any of the other similar devices."

> Mac OS was crap before the move to the more Unix-inspired NeXT and
> subsequent OS X

Indeed it was, and it was to Apple's credit that they eventually 
realised it and moved to a more architecturally sound system - unlike 
another well-known IT firm.

Fred