A Rich Neighbor Named Xerox 一个名叫施乐的富有邻居

作者: 安迪·赫茨菲尔德 日期: 1983年11月 人物: 史蒂夫·乔布斯、尼尔·康岑、迈克·博伊奇、比尔·盖茨 主题: 3rd 方开发商、微软、个性 概要: 关于苹果第一代Macintosh的开发以及制造它的人的轶事: 史蒂夫就抄袭 Mac 与比尔·盖茨对峙 , 一个名叫施乐的富有邻居 A Rich Neighbor Named Xerox

Steve Jobs asked Microsoft to be the first company to make software for the Macintosh computer. He was worried that Microsoft might copy the Macintosh’s ideas and use them for their own PC. So, he made them promise not to make software that used a mouse until the Macintosh had been sold to the public for at least a year.

史蒂夫·乔布斯要求微软成为第一家为麦金塔电脑开发软件的公司。
他担心微软可能会复制麦金塔的想法并将其用于自己的个人电脑。因此,他让他们承诺,在麦金塔电脑向公众出售至少一年之前,不会开发使用鼠标的软件。

Neil Konzen was a talented programmer who worked at Microsoft. He was young and smart, and even started working there when he was still in high school. Neil lived near Microsoft’s office in Seattle. He was very good at making computer systems work well and made a special card that allowed Apple II computers to run programs made for a different type of computer, called CP/M.

Neil Konzen 是一位在微软工作的才华横溢的程序员。他年轻又聪明,甚至在高中时就开始在那里工作。
尼尔住在西雅图微软办公室附近。他非常擅长使计算机系统正常工作,并制作了一种特殊的卡,可以让 Apple II 计算机运行为不同类型的计算机编写的程序,称为 CP/M。

Neil liked Apple computers, so it made sense that Microsoft gave him a special job to work on a secret Macintosh project. He was responsible for combining Microsoft’s way of working with computer code (which was similar to a system used at Xerox) with the Mac’s operating system. Because the Mac had limited memory, this was a good approach. Neil became an expert in the technical details of the Mac system because of this work.

尼尔喜欢苹果电脑,因此微软给他一份特殊的工作来参与一个秘密的麦金塔项目是有道理的。
他负责将 Microsoft 的计算机代码工作方式(类似于 Xerox 使用的系统)与 Mac 操作系统结合起来。
由于 Mac 的内存有限,这是一个很好的方法。 Neil 因为这项工作而成为 Mac 系统技术细节方面的专家。

By the summer of 1983, Microsoft was making good progress. They demonstrated working examples of their spreadsheet and graphics programs, called Multiplan and Chart. They were also working on a word processor, but they didn’t say anything about that because it would be competing with a similar product called MacWrite. I would usually talk to Neil on the phone a few times a week. Sometimes he would ask me to add a new feature to the programs, or tell me something wasn’t working right. Mostly, he would ask me questions about how the programs worked, as the ideas were still changing.

到 1983 年夏天,微软已经取得了良好的进展。他们演示了电子表格和图形程序的工作示例,称为 Multiplan 和 Chart。他们还在开发一款文字处理器,但他们没有透露任何内容,因为它将与一款名为 MacWrite 的类似产品竞争。
我通常每周都会和尼尔通几次电话。有时他会要求我向程序添加新功能,或者告诉我有些地方工作不正常。大多数情况下,他会问我有关程序如何运作的问题,因为想法仍在变化。

I noticed that Neil would ask questions about small details of how things were done. He was very curious about how regions work and would often tell me his ideas about it, hoping I would agree.

我注意到尼尔会询问有关事情如何完成的小细节的问题。他对区域的运作方式非常好奇,并经常告诉我他对此的想法,希望我能同意。

Besides being interested in learning, there was no important reason to think about the inside workings of the system unless you wanted to create your own version. I told Steve that I thought Microsoft might copy the Mac, but he wasn’t too concerned because he didn’t think they could make a good copy, even with the Mac as an example to follow.

除了对学习感兴趣之外,没有重要的理由去思考系统的内部工作原理,除非你想创建自己的版本。
我告诉史蒂夫,我认为微软可能会复制 Mac,但他并不太担心,因为他认为他们无法复制出好的产品,即使以 Mac 为例。

In November 1983, we learned that Microsoft made a big surprise announcement at a big computer show in Las Vegas. Microsoft told everyone about a new way for computers to look and work, called Windows. This new way was like the way some other company, Personal Software, had already shown theirs, called “Vision”. Microsoft also said they were going to make a mouse (a small device to move the cursor) an option for their popular word-processing program, Microsoft Word. When Steve Jobs, the leader of Apple, found out about Windows, he got very angry and upset.

1983 年 11 月,我们得知微软在拉斯维加斯的一次大型电脑展上发布了一个令人惊讶的重大消息。
微软向所有人介绍了一种计算机外观和工作的新方式,称为 Windows。
这种新方式就像其他一些公司(Personal Software)已经展示的方式,称为“愿景”。微软还表示,他们将为其流行的文字处理程序 Microsoft Word 提供鼠标(一种移动光标的小型设备)。
当苹果公司的领导者史蒂夫·乔布斯发现Windows时,他非常生气和不安。

“Send Gates to my office right now”, the person shouted at Mike Boich. “I need him to explain this situation, and it had better be a good explanation. I want him here in my office by tomorrow afternoon. If he’s not here, there will be trouble!”

“立即派盖茨到我的办公室”,那人对迈克·博伊奇喊道。 “我需要他给我解释一下这个情况,而且最好是一个好的解释。我希望他在明天下午之前到我的办公室来。如果他不来,那就麻烦了!”

I was surprised when I received an invitation to a meeting in the same room the next day. Bill Gates was there, by himself, with ten Apple employees. I think Steve wanted me to be there because I knew something that happened between Neil and Apple. But nothing about that came up. Instead, I just sat and watched as Steve started yelling at Bill. He asked Bill why he broke a promise they made.

第二天,当我收到在同一个房间参加会议的邀请时,我感到很惊讶。比尔·盖茨本人和十名苹果员工也在场。
我想史蒂夫希望我去那里是因为我知道尼尔和苹果之间发生的事情。但没有出现任何相关内容。相反,我只是坐着看着史蒂夫开始对比尔大喊大叫。他问比尔为什么违背了他们的承诺。

Steve was very angry and shouted, “You’re taking our money! I trusted you, and now you’re taking something that belongs to us.”

史蒂夫非常生气,喊道:“你拿走了我们的钱!我信任你,现在你却拿走了属于我们的东西。”

Bill Gates stayed calm and looked straight at Steve before talking in a soft, squeaky tone.

比尔·盖茨保持冷静,直视史蒂夫,然后用柔和而尖刻的语气说道。

“I think there are different ways to see this, Steve. It’s like our classmate, Xerox, was having a birthday party and you and I both took one of his presents without asking. But in reality, you took the present first.”

“我认为可以用不同的方式来看待这一点,史蒂夫。这就像我们的同学施乐正在举办生日聚会,你和我都没有询问就拿走了他的一份礼物。但实际上,你先拿走了礼物。”

Unfortunately, it turns out that Microsoft signed an agreement in 1981 that said they couldn’t release mouse-based software until a year after the Macintosh computer came out. At the time, we thought the Mac would come out in the fall of 1982, so we didn’t think to leave the exact date open to change. As a result, Microsoft was allowed to announce Windows in September 1983, which is one year after the Macintosh was released. Since Apple still needed Microsoft’s apps for the Macintosh, Steve Jobs couldn’t stop working with them.

不幸的是,事实证明,微软在 1981 年签署了一项协议,规定在麦金塔电脑问世一年后,他们才能发布基于鼠标的软件。
当时,我们认为 Mac 将于 1982 年秋季问世,因此我们不认为可以更改确切的日期。
结果,微软获准在 1983 年 9 月发布 Windows,也就是 Macintosh 发布一年后。
由于苹果仍然需要微软为 Macintosh 提供的应用程序,史蒂夫·乔布斯无法停止与它们的合作。

Microsoft took two years to make a version of Windows. They finally released it in the fall of 1985. Windows 1.0 was not very good, just like Steve had said it would be. It didn’t look as nice as the Macintosh computer and didn’t have a feature that most people expected, such as windows that could be placed on top of each other. Instead, it used a different method called “tiling”. When people didn’t like it, Bill Gates changed the team working on Windows and started over again with a new leader, Neil Konzen.

微软花了两年时间才开发出一个版本的Windows。他们终于在 1985 年秋天发布了它。
Windows 1.0 并不是很好,正如 Steve 所说的那样。它看起来不像麦金塔电脑那么漂亮,也没有大多数人期望的功能,例如可以相互叠放的窗口。相反,它使用了一种称为“平铺”的不同方法。
当人们不喜欢它时,比尔盖茨改变了 Windows 团队,并由新的领导者 Neil Konzen 重新开始。

Later, Microsoft released its version of Windows, and it was good enough that Apple filed a big lawsuit against Microsoft. But in the end, Apple lost because of a small mistake (Apple had accidentally given Microsoft the right to use the Mac’s user interface forever, when they agreed to certain terms in 1985).

后来微软发布了自己的Windows版本,还好苹果对微软提起了大诉讼。
但最终,苹果因为一个小错误而输了(苹果在 1985 年同意某些条款时,无意中给予了微软永久使用 Mac 用户界面的权利)。
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