In an article regarding Palm’s decision to use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 for their next Treo (see related article Palm goes to the dark side, next Treo to use Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0), Tech pundit Rob Enderle writes:
“It is interesting to note, that few seem to remember that Microsoft wrote the first MacOS under contract to Apple nearly two decades ago but, like most Apple partnerships, this one also ended badly.” – Rob Enderle, September 26th, 2005
Let’s pause to let that one sink in… savor, bask, indulge… Okay, one more time:
“It is interesting to note, that few seem to remember that Microsoft wrote the first MacOS under contract to Apple nearly two decades ago but, like most Apple partnerships, this one also ended badly.” – Rob Enderle, September 26th, 2005
Huh? Count us among the few that don’t remember a bit of that historical tidbit. We thought Apple’s Macintosh team designed and built the original Macintosh hardware and software: Bill Atkinson, Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crow, Burrell Smith, Jerry Manock, Jef Raskin and Andy Hertzfeld. We searched all over, but cannot find anything about Microsoft writing the first Mac OS. Can you? About the only thing we can think of that Endere might mean is that Apple licensed Microsoft’s Applesoft Basic for the Apple II. Is that what he means? Or perhaps he means that Steve Jobs recruited Microsoft to be the first third party applications software developer for the Mac?
Some of the places we looked (and failed) to find out about how Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS under contract to Apple:
• kernelthread.com – The Macintosh
• Wikipedia – Mac OS
• Jef Raskin – Recollections of the Macintosh project
• MacKiDo – Early Mac OS
• Encyclopædia Britannica – Macintosh and the first affordable GUI
• Folklore.org: Andy Hertzfeld – The first time we demoed the Macintosh to Microsoft
• Folklore.org: Andy Hertzfeld – Steve Jobs confronts Bill Gates about copying the Mac
Enderle’s full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, are we among the few that don’t remember that “Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS under contract to Apple nearly two decades ago” or has Enderle just taken his “Enderleness” to hitherto unknown level?
Enderle is a BOOB….. Microsoft DID NOT write any version of the MAC OS. Now, if you want to discuss Apple OS’s before the 1984 Mac, we can talk about that, as Microsoft did do work with Apple on the DOS Apple products……
Sorry Sarcastic Sal,
I would remove the extra link if I could. I hope you didn’t get a cramp in your index finger from clicking on it.
Sincerely
Your Pal, Dogfriend
>>For an encore, next week Mr. Enderle will claim that Marie Antoinette wrote the USA’s first Declaration of Independence.
Has there been more than one? <g>
Microsoft wrote basic for the Apple II, not the Mac OS. Enderle is terribly confused…
Why does MDN dignify and spread the statements of clearly biased pundits? Everybody knows that Enderle has no clue the only thing keeping him alive is our consideration and the extra revenue he gets from those who travel to his site through MDN’s links. Lets ignore him to death, or even worse, irrelevance.
This guy must be on crack and the Microsoft payroll… he is dangerous and pathetic… if a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth … then he needs to be sued and his falsehoods silenced…
abqmac:
He is not terribly confused, it is not a typo error. He did it with the intention to get hits on his site. And this is not the first time.
He is doing more or less the same as those infamous e-mails with bad news from x or y product, or a person in need for a kidney or those on which they say that hotmail or MSN Messenger services are going to have a fee. The reaction of the people is to spread the word and someone, somewhere, get a big list of e-mail addresses. Just don’t go to his site.
MW “Because” as in “Do not go to his site BECAUSE he is in need for hits”
Paul is a tool.
He actually thinks Microsoft wrote the Mac OS.
Rob, the original Mac OS worked well and fit on a 400 kb floppy.
It wasn’t a bloated, bug ridden POS. That alone should have given you a clue that Microsoft did not have anything to do with it.
There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this error. Mr. Enderle was obviously concussed by a tipping iMac G5.
I was selling for the Byte Shop up in Seattle in the early 80’s, 80-85, and M$ did NOT write the first Mac OS.
As a matter of fact it was written in Pascal.
Now, isn’t he a dahling, our dear li’l Enderle:) I guess he mixed some wishful thinking into his memory bank and while he was thinking of the software MS wrote for Apple, he had it growing into the entire OS.
I am happy MDN keep publishing these entertaining stories=) We all need a good laugh once in a while…
I think he meant when it comes to software developement…i could be wrong…
—
Ah, I see.. of course, we all know what an OS is.. could this be Enderle’s worst typo ever?
“It is interesting to note, that few seem to remember that Microsoft wrote for the first MacOS under contract to Apple nearly two decades ago but, like most Apple partnerships, this one also ended badly.” – Rob Enderle, September 26th, 2005″
Maybe he is confusing Microsoft with Xerox PARC? Of course, PARC didn’t write the first Mac OS, but Apple did borrow (buy, license, something like that) a bit of the GUI and the mouse from PARC.
Since Mac 128k says:
“Why does MDN dignify and spread the statements of clearly biased pundits? Everybody knows that Enderle has no clue the only thing keeping him alive is our consideration and the extra revenue he gets from those who travel to his site through MDN’s links. Lets ignore him to death, or even worse, irrelevance.”
I’m not sure, but I think it’s because the MDN editors are themselves “clearly biased pundits”, and these types tend to enjoy flaming each other more than just about any other activity. Don’t get me wrong – as an Apple fan myself, I definitely enjoy the MDN brand of bias more than the MS alternatives, but still … don’t ever come to this sight and expect the editors to devote the majority of their time to anything else. Like journalism or objectivity.
I like the posters though. Good bunch!
Anyway, I agree with what someone already said; I wish they would stop linking to, and thus promoting, him. And if they can’t help themselves, then we should boycott reading him regardless. Enderly needs to be given the slow, painful, and totally anonymous ‘professional death’ he deserves, ASAP.
If Microsoft wrote the first MacOS, why did they make such a pig’s ear of the port to x86, and why did it take them so long (20+ years and still waiting) to make it work properly?
If Enderhurl was referring the MS Basic that was on the Apple II series, than he not only screwed up the computer and OS, but also the time frame. That would be more like almost 3 decades ago, not 2.
Still, Enderhurl is just like an accident on the side of the road, ya gotta look. Morbid can sometimes be funny, and he is living proof.
The air is obviously very thin at Rob Enderles place.
Great shot of Microsoft. The only thing missing is the banjo.
Applesoft basic was written by Steve Wozniak, the other Steve at Apple. This is total nonsense. The nice thing about this is that you learn not to believe everything that is published and this applies to a all fields of journalism.
The sad thing is, Enderle really believes this… stuff, he writes. He really does. I’ve had a few email exchanges with him and it is impossible to penetrate the “Enderle Reality Distortion Field” any anything remotely resembling facts. He just brushes them aside with appeals to his own authority, which I’ve never accepted.
It will be no use calling him on this complete load of BS, he will never be convinced otherwise.
The only nice thing I have to say about him, as an “analyst,” is that he does read and answer his own email.
HAHAHA! That’s a funny picture of the MS geeks! Is that li’l Billy in the lower left corner?!
Apple needs to sue this guy. He’s writing absolutely false statements that negatively impact the companies financial viability. This is not freedom of the press, this is defamatory, it’s libel, it would probably be slander if the idiot that wrote it was capable of answering questions or speaking in public (this kind of things seems to go unnoticed these days). Name him and sue him for being the slimy scumbag he is. I hope someone reports him for tax evasion. Wonder who gets his back in jail? Because you know some perjury is going to be happening.
MW=question
Question: What would you do to this guy in a dark alley?
He’s talking about Macs, and he’s talking about the Mac OS.
Don’t look for a hidden way to make him right. He’s completely deluded and an idiot.
Or starting a myth on purpose.
Dazed and Confused wrote:
“Great shot of Microsoft. The only thing missing is the banjo.”
Dang. As a banjo player and an Apple lover, that hurts, and hurts badly!
MW “country” as in the only real country music ever created was bluegrass.
g5mac writes: “Now, if you want to discuss Apple OS’s before the 1984 Mac, we can talk about that, as Microsoft did do work with Apple on the DOS Apple products……”
WRONG! Sorry, but this is not at all true. The first computer i ever bought was an Apple ][ in 1979. A year or two later i heard Steve Wozniak talk at an Apple user’s group. Woz said he wrote Integer BASIC, the Apple ][ ROM and [Apple] DOS. (DOS was later enhanced for 16-sector tracks, and an “autostart ROM” was developed, but both were in-house enhancements, and i think Woz was involved in both.)
Applesoft, the floating point BASIC, was written by M$. M$ also made a Z80 card for the Apple ][ which ran a version of CP/M. That is the closest M$ has come to having anything to do with any Apple OS. (But so few were sold that not many people remember it.)
M$ had nothing to do with Apple DOS, Apple ProDOS, Pascal, MFS, HFS, A/UX, Macintosh System Software, MacOS, nor MacOS X.
If you’re feeling charitable, you can say the idiot Enderle was thinking of the M$ Z80 card (but i seriously doubt he has ever heard of it). If he was thinking of Applesoft, that was a computer programing language, not an OS! And it wasn’t even in ROM at first; had to load it from cassette tape originally.
The very early Apple ][’s didn’t even have a disk drive. Later, that became an option. Woz wrote DOS for the Apple ][ after he invented a very clever Apple ][ disk controller card. Woz did some amazing things. Everybody else’s disk controller cards were huge by comparison.
Note to readers who may not remember the 80’s: “DOS” is a generic term, an acronym, which simply means: Disk Operating System. The term was in use long before there was a M$.
MS didnt write ANY MacOS. Maybe some Apple II Software, but thats a far cry from being a Mac OS. JUst goes to show this idiot doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s talking about.