Re: [steem] Classic Video Games Make a Comeback, Thanks Mike
- From: "Mike Fulton" <mfulton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <steem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 16:27:43 -0700
There was an lawsuit where Apple made the accusation that MS had copied
elements of the Mac GUI for use in Windows. Anybody with the whole story
knows that almost everything common to both the MAC and Windows GUI really
came from the Xerox PARC "Star" project, but Microsoft settled rather than
run the chance of losing in court with a jury incapable of making such
distinctions.
Nobody accused MS of actually stealing source code. And realistically, it
wouldn't have made much sense. Anybody who has programmed both systems know
that despite any VISUAL similarity in the GUI, the structure of the
underlying code is MUCH, much different between the Mac and Windows.
When Apple sued DRI over GEM, DRI simply didn't have the financial backing
to put up much of a fight or buy their way out of it. They didn't have
anything Apple wanted. Or vice versa for that matter. Apple HAD to sue DRI
or it would have hurt their case with Microsoft, but I doubt they were
really all that worried about GEM. GEM hadn't really made any significant
impact on the market as a general purpose GUI environment. Its only
successful application was Ventura Publisher, and most users ran GEM only
while they were using VP.
The result of the lawsuit was that DRI had to come out with a new version of
GEM that removed the garbage can. And the GEM DESKTOP application could
only have two OVERLAPPING windows. (This restriction did not apply to other
GEM applications, just the DESKTOP. Only a lawyer would come up with
something so goofy.)
As far as the Atari's version of GEM was concerned, it was completely
unaffected by the result of the APPLE -V- DRI lawsuit. Atari had
essentially gotten a source code license from DRI for GEM, and after it was
up and running they didn't have any ongoing relationship with DRI. Atari
was responsible for maintaining and updating their own version. It's ironic,
because the Atari version of GEM was by far the most widely distributed.
I suspect that Apple didn't go after Atari for two reasons... First, they
just didn't view Atari as real competition. Despite attempts to position
the machine as serious competition to the Mac or PC in business and
productivity, the ST's only real success was as a home computer, which is
not an area that Apple was really pursuing with the Mac. Any minor success
in other areas wasn't really important because they expected that Atari
would self-destruct eventually without any outside help.
Second, Apple probably recognized that the Tramiels would NOT be likely to
settle such a lawsuit. Aside from their reputation for long, drawn-out court
cases, in this instance Atari had no fallback position. Any significant
changes to GEM would likely be fatal, given the Atari's much, much greater
library of GEM applications. For Atari, this would have been a fight to the
death, and they wouldn't have gone gently.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: steem-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:steem-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Yoko Yamaki
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 11:49 AM
To: steem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [steem] Classic Video Games Make a Comeback, Thanks Mike
Hello,
what about this story then that Billie had 'stolen' lots of code for windos
from mac intosh 'gem'? if i remember well, pc gem was limited to 2 windows
and no trash can after apple had sued the makers of pc-gem.
YY
--
Steem - http://steem.atari.st/
Manage your list membership - //www.freelists.org/
Click here to unsubscribe -
mailto:steem-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
Other related posts:
