“Apple was years ahead of its time. The Mac OS allowed users to operate programs and open folders inside collapsible ‘windows,’ something Microsoft picked up in its Windows operating systems,” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. “You could argue that every PC is a Macintosh, because of the similarity of Windows to the original Mac OS.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, “Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently said: ‘There was a time when Windows wasn’t Windows. They had Microsoft DOS, and DOS was lines you had to type (on screen). … And the funny thing is, when they switched over
I am always reminded of the arrogant comments I use to hear from DOS users about the mouse and the GUI.
“COMMAND LINE” is the only REAL interface, they would blather. “What the heck do I need that stupid mouse thing for?”, they would spew.
Not surprising this same clueless category of human now makes the same disparaging remarks about modern Apple products and the innovations they introduce to the world on a regular basis. They completely ignore the fact that Mac users have been enjoying a far superior version of their now widely adopted GUI interface for years. They don’t realize how pathetically weak their interface and operating system’s capabilities are compared to what we use. Since 95% of them have never actually used a Macintosh, all they can do is regurgitate FUD spewed by equally clueless Windows zealots, insecure about their choice in computers.
There are leaders, and there are followers.
The Windows world and the sheep that live in it will never understand what it feels like to LEAD.
Let us not forget the Amiga also was ahead of its time as well. Amiga probably pushed multimedia computing further than Mac or PC initially. Of course I’m not trying to raise a stink here and MacHeads and Amigans get along quite well.
😎
Off-topic: I don’t like the way MDN’s articles are now rendering on my Ti-book. The ads on the right are way out there, and each line of article is way too long for comfortable reading. The size of the browser (Safari or Explorer) window seems not to matter.
What’s up with that? Can be get back to the old way of rendering?
P.S.: As I submitted my complaint, the page rendered correctly. Not sure what’s going on here.
Ah. It is related to the banner ad between the article and the posts. If i get a vote, then I cast it for banning big banners in the middle column
MDN is a good site.
No MDN=No News
R.V. – Actually, being quite familiar with Unix/Linux/DOS/ “command line” – I for the most part prefer the keyboard over the mouse. I use the command line to nagivate around almost as much as I use the mouse.
If a program has 1000 functions, menu-ing around to find the one you need is really irritating. Why not just type the name of it and let the computer find it for you?
That’s why command lines are better than GUIs. If you’ve got a good memory and are working in a very complex program, it’s much easier. (I have a terrible memory, so I need menus.)
“R.V. – Actually, being quite familiar with Unix/Linux/DOS/ “command line” – I for the most part prefer the keyboard over the mouse. I use the command line to nagivate around almost as much as I use the mouse.”
In my line of work Graphic Design command line is really not an option, but I understand what you are saying. Still, you are in a very tiny minority of users.
The people I was referring to in my previous comments were the farthest thing from a power user. They are all now happily using a GUI and mouse in the form of Windows and if you ask them who invented both, they will likely tell you in all seriousness that it was Microsoft. ;o)
However, borrowing from the previous stories on MDN, the Mac is for “the rest of us”. Yes, I know command line on many computer systems, but how many of those can you just walk up to and start using with no experience, no book, no help?
I recently started using Garage Band, iMovie and iDVD. I’ve not had a manual. I’ve not had a class. I didn’t read the help files. I just use them and they work. I’m sure that later on I’ll need to read up to do some of the more fancier things, but not right now.
Now, compare that to your DOS or Unix or VMS or whatever command line you want to use. That’s one of the beautiful things about the Mac is that it expects PEOPLE to use it, not computer programmers.
Jimbo is right and especially the part that when you use Mac you forget totally that you are using a computer. It just works and let’s you do what you want.
Windows ’95 = Macintosh ’84?
Windows 2008 = Macintosh ’97?
(And yes, Amiga was ahead of the pack in some areas for several years–which my business once benefitted from! The basic UI concept was of course Mac just like every other UI.)
I gotta smile when I read that article. “Computer for the rest of us”, “Insanely great”, etc. were great phrases that people remember to this day. What happens to Jobs’s great phrase making ability? His latest “Microsoft Office for the rest of your life” is definitely not up to par with his other quotes.
I remember when I bought my first PC, in 1993. No way could I afford a Mac (or so I thought at the time). I bought a PC with a huge bundle of what turned out to be mostly useless software. The OS was Windows 3.1.
I definitely remember people being very puzzled by the GUI (such as it was). but I couldn’t understand why anyone would use a DOS screen for word processing etc. If you need to select stuff, the chances are a mouse will be quicker.
I use a command line (VMS) for most of the day at work. But that’s accessed via a terminal emulator, so the command line stuff gets cut and pasted using mouse anyway.
I thought at the time that those guys were dicks for saying things like ‘Don’t be a WIMP, use DOS!’. Now they’re all using XP or whatever and not even thinking about it.
“I thought at the time that those guys were dicks for saying things like ‘Don’t be a WIMP, use DOS!’. Now they’re all using XP or whatever and not even thinking about it.” – Hywel
Somehow, people equate fixing prowess with manliness. We see this with cars (a manly man changes his own pistons) and computers (too easy, must be a toy). A manly man must use command line, WIMP is for inferior beings. As Windows transformed the PC experience, suddenly WIMP is no longer for wimps. But a manly man still uses his PC, build from a scratch with nothing but a hammer and a monkey wrench. So, Macs are still for wimps.
GEOS was my first mouse/GUI system and I hated it. I would much rather stick with:
Load “*”,8,1
Okay, the mouse/menu GUI vs. command line debate is just silly.
The GUI, as a made popular by Apple and Commodore, revolutionized computing. To this day, a CLI is useless for what most people do, espcially for those things that are FUN to do, with a computer. You can’t mix down a song, loop MIDI files, design a web page, browse the web, author a DVD, build a smart playlist of MP4s, edit a movie, design a logo, put together a brochure, frag an opponent with a Banshee, or do any of a thousand different things without the existance of a GUI. If anyone is honestly still trying to do any of these things at the command line they are, in my opinion, either a Luddite or a masochist.
There is a place and time for the command line that are perfectly appropriate, but those times woudl be few and far between for the typical computer user and, in fact, there would be no widespread use of PCs if not for the whole concept of a GUI.
Now, back to the debate…..