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Article #44020Re: A philosophic question
From: gillies
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1989 08:52
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1989 08:52
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Why didn't Xerox make a killing? The quick answer is: They based all their software technology on a Xerox custom bit-sliced microprogrammed virtual-memory workstation called the Wildflower. That computer was at least as innovative as the software itself. Unfortunately, no other computer in the world would run the software, which was not easily portable (how many PC's today run VM? Do you know how long it takes to rewrite a compiler for a language as complicated as ADA?) and when Xerox finally unveiled the commercial product it was the best $15,000 networked-word processer the world had ever seen. Network? What's a network? This was 1981.
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: A philosophic question Message-ID: <8400205@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Date: 16 Dec 89 08:52:00 GMT References: <1635@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> Lines: 14 Nf-ID: #R:xn.LL.MIT.EDU:1635:m.cs.uiuc.edu:8400205:000:653 Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies Dec 16 02:52:00 1989