Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 438 Another Tragic Product of Apple
"Everything is fine." Woz sighed softly after answering with a smile, "It's just that Steve makes people uncomfortable."

It turned out that this unhappiness was actually related to Jobs' new relationship, which really made people dumbfounded.

While dealing with Regis McKenna earlier, Jobs met Barbara Jasinski, an employee of McKenna's public relations firm, a beautiful woman of Polynesian and Polish descent.

The two of them went to concerts together, vacationed in Hawaii, and lived together in the Santa Cruz Mountains.But Jobs inevitably got tired of playing in the end, so he just changed a girlfriend in the music industry, whose name is Joan Baez—Joan Baez.

Compared with Barbara Yasinski, Joan Baez is a powerful figure. She is a very famous folk singer in the United States. In particular, Joan Baez is also an active social activist. Pioneer against the Vietnam War.

But one thing is that Joan Baez was born in 1941 and is now 41 years old, while Steve Jobs, who was born in 1955, is only 27 years old this year.

In addition, Joan Baez has a son with her ex-husband, anti-war activist David Harris-David Harris, both in their teens.

Therefore, in the eyes of most people, no matter how beautiful and humorous Joan Baez is, it would be a bit out of place for billionaire Jobs to ask her to talk about friends.

In the eyes of friends who are familiar with Jobs, the reason why Jobs fell in love with Joan Baez is that Joan Baez was once the lover of the famous rock and folk singer Bob Dylan whom he admired. _Man, Jobs loved the "association" with Bob Dylan.

This was so intriguing that Tang Huan frowned.

"In order to show off in front of his new girlfriend, Steve ran to the office of the music festival organizing committee to give instructions. Fortunately, the assistants you arranged were experienced and able to proceed according to the original plan." Woz said happily .

"Since Steve likes this music festival so much, then he should invest in the funds, otherwise he is not qualified to babble." Tang Huan shook his head disapprovingly.

Woz waved his hand quickly, "Don, don't let Steve get involved, otherwise it will cause chaos. If the festival has less funds, I am willing to continue to support it."

"It scares you, I just said that casually." Seeing Woz's frightened look, Tang Huan couldn't help but smile.

"By the way, the reason why I was in such a hurry to find you was that I was entrusted by Mike to inquire about your attitude." After chatting for a while, Woz remembered the business of this trip.

"The research and development of the Lisa computer has been completed, but there is an obvious gap between the existing applications and the current market demand. In terms of commercial software, there is still a lack of an appealing king program. Mike means, can Zheru use the software developed for the Apple II? The suite of software, including spreadsheets, was ported to the Lisa platform."

"This question..." Tang Huan pondered for a long time, but did not give an answer immediately.

Friendship is friendship, but among Apple’s products, only the Apple II is Tang Huanneng’s favorite. Although this product is not the most advanced, it is more durable and the market it targets is complementary to the second-generation Fangyuan computer. the value of.

In contrast, the Lisa computer project, which began in 1978, was developed by a group of professional engineers led by John Couch from Hewlett-Packard. Its target is the same as the Apple III, which is the enterprise market, which is the main site of Fangyuan Computer.

In addition, after Jobs stole a lesson from PARC, he brought the graphical user interface he saw into the Lisa project team abruptly, and began to rob people and tyrannically seize power.

Due to the market failure of the Apple III, Markkula and Scott, who had not yet resigned at the time, were afraid that Jobs would lead the Lisa project team into the ditch again, so at the request of John Couch, they jointly removed Jobs from the Lisa project team. The project team was expelled.

Although Jobs was driven away, the impact he left was not easy to eliminate. The entire Lisa project was equivalent to tearing it down and starting over, and the previous efforts were in vain.

For these reasons, the Lisa project team was very defensive and xenophobic from top to bottom, wishing that all user needs could be fulfilled in their own hands, and partners like Tang Huan had no chance of getting involved.

Apple II and Zheru cooperated very closely. Even for the failed Apple III, Zheru participated in the software development on its platform early, but Lisa and MAC completely excluded Zheru.

Of course, Apple can imagine that Zheru will be alienated from himself.

Now, the Lisa computer is ripe, and Apple suddenly finds that its development strength in commercial software is not enough to cover everything, so it thinks of cramming.

You think of a philosopher as a rag, use it when you want to use it, and throw it away when you want to throw it away?
You know, now that Tang Huan is full-fledged, there is no need to wrong himself or accommodate others.

Seeing Tang Huan's lack of enthusiasm, Woz waved his hand indifferently, "You decide slowly, anyway, Mike told me about this on the phone, he and his wife are on vacation in the Caribbean."

"Then it depends on the situation." Tang Huan muttered in his heart, "This guy Markkula doesn't care about himself, and he still expects others to lend a hand", and he vaguely declined.

……

Unexpectedly, the next day, Jobs brought John Couch, the person in charge of the Lisa project, to find him himself.

Tang Huan glanced at them in surprise, thinking that these two people fought to the death in the Lisa project team, why are they now together.

"Mike is not here, so I have to worry about the affairs of other departments of Apple." Seeing that Tang Huan did not hide his doubts, Jobs explained patiently.

"Apple really needs a full-time CEO." Tang Huan smiled slightly, "How are you looking for the candidate? How about I go over and give in?"

"Apple can't afford you. I've already found almost all people." Jobs, whose face darkened, quickly waved his hands and quickly changed the subject, "The Lisa computer has been developed and is currently looking for third-party software development Partners to enrich platform applications. Zheru and Apple have been in contact for so long, so they should get this opportunity at the first time.”

Tang Huan let out an oh, and slowly took a sip of water from his cup, and then there was no more to say.

"What do you mean, tell me quickly." Jobs urged impatiently.

"I don't mean anything, so what can I mean?" Tang Huan spread his hands indifferently.

"I see, you're not interested, are you?" Jobs snorted resentfully, "In addition to Zheru, we have other options, such as Microsoft."

"Is it interesting for you to threaten me with something like this?" Tang Huan glanced at Jobs with a half-smile.

Jobs, who did not show any weakness, was about to retort when he suddenly remembered that Microsoft had been secretly pulled over by him to develop commercial office software for MAC, so how could he have the resources to work on Lisa.

"You see, Don doesn't think Lisa's business is worth doing. If that's the case, there's nothing I can do about it." Jobs left this sentence to John Couch, got up and walked away.

Tang Huan laughed disapprovingly, thinking that Jobs was too careless when he lobbied. It seems that compared with the MAC project belonging to the direct line, the Lisa project is going to be a stepmother's child again.

Jobs left, but John Couch did not leave, he sighed bitterly, "I can see that Jobs didn't come to talk about things sincerely at all, and the Lisa computer has always been a thorn in his heart. "

"Thinking so much is just asking for trouble. Now that the Lisa computer has been born, there is no point in bringing up the old grievances." Tang Huan comforted him casually.

He remembered that in the original time and space, John Couch left Apple in the 1980s, but a few years after Jobs killed and returned to Apple, this old man also worked for Apple again as a vice president, which shows that he was ultimately Gave in to Jobs.In contrast, the knot in front of me is a bit ridiculous.

"The Lisa computer came out ahead of the MAC. For this reason, Jobs, who lost the bet, put $5000 on my desk as promised, but this does not mean that Jobs will let the Lisa computer go."

John Couch looked worried and hurried, "Do you know what Jobs did to the Lisa project? In addition to pulling some engineers from the Lisa project team to the MAC project team, he also specifically targeted the Lisa computer and provided The research and development of the computer has been consciously optimized accordingly, obviously to surpass the Lisa computer."

Having said this, John Couch looked at Tang Huan sincerely, "Tang, Lisa Computer is really good enough to deserve Zheru, the most powerful independent software developer, to develop commercial office software for it."

The reason why John Couch was in such a hurry was because he panicked and realized that his Lisa project team was a little behind closed doors, which led to falling behind.

Due to the influence of Tang Huan, users are now paying more and more attention to the functions and functions of software. It is not possible to fool around with just a piece of hardware that can only type and count.

The Lisa project team is on high alert in order to avoid the loss of power. To some extent, because of this information blockage, they have not kept up with the rapidly changing situation.

Especially after the development of the Lisa computer was completed, John Couch always vaguely felt that Jobs looked at him intriguingly, which made him feel heavy.

The failure of the Apple III was too tragic. John Couch didn’t want his Lisa computer, which had devoted so much effort, to become a laughing stock in the industry.

Therefore, John Couch really wanted to get the support of commercial software from Tang Huan.

"Why, aren't you afraid that Lisa Computer will encounter people with bad intentions now?" Tang Huan joked.

"There is nothing to be afraid of. The Lisa computer has been completed and is about to appear at COMDEX." John Couch smiled awkwardly.

"If I remember correctly, the customer group that Lisa Computer is interested in is an enterprise. If it is really excellent, wouldn't it poach the corner of Fangyuan Computer?" Tang Huan bluntly expressed his opinion on Lisa Computer.

John Couch seemed to have thought about this question a long time ago, and quickly replied: "The enterprise market is so big, I think, with Tang Pingli's mind, he would not mind adding another partner to fight against old competitors such as IBM, HP, and DEC." .”

Tang Huan shook his head with a smile, "What you said is too false."

"I know that Zheru must also be developing an operating system with a graphical user interface. It's just that your plans are so big that you haven't published them all the time."

John Couch stared at Tang Huan, and said slowly: "Don't you want to know as much as possible about the extent to which the pioneers in this field have achieved? What method is better than developing large-scale software for Lisa computers?" More effective? And with the strong position of philosophers, it is impossible for Apple to put forward any excessive restrictions."

"What you said this time is quite interesting." Tang Huan nodded slightly, as if he was moved by the words.

John Couch was overjoyed when he heard the words, "Then please invite Tang to visit the Lisa Computer immediately, so that we can finalize the cooperation as soon as possible, and when the product is released, we can also cheer for the Lisa Computer."

……

Because the Lisa computer has the characteristics of a native graphical user interface, Tang Huan deliberately brought Charles Simeone and other important technical backbones so that he could have a look at the latest achievements in this field in advance.

Led by John Couch, the mighty group just walked into the Apple Company, and happened to meet Jobs head-on, with a graceful woman next to him.

"Have you discussed it in private?" Jobs, who came to his senses, asked John Couch angrily.

"Mike knows about it, and he also agrees with it." John Couch replied lightly.

Just as Jobs was about to speak, Tang Huan said to his female companion, "Ms. Joan Baez? I'm Tang Huan. It's an honor to meet you. I'm also a music fan and I like your songs very much."

Tang Huan's compliment came from the bottom of her heart, not to mention Joan Baez's maverick avant-garde social movements, just talking about her achievements in music deserves all kinds of praise. Her singing voice is high-pitched and clear, quite contagious.

"Tang, nice to meet you." Joan Baez smiled and held Tang Huan's outstretched hand together.

Now in the entire United States, even if you don't know what Tang Huan looks like, you have heard of his name. He is No. 400 in "Forbes 1", the richest man in the United States.

Therefore, when Tang Huan reported his family name, he didn't even need to have a lot of titles such as the chairman of the board of directors of such and such. He could let others know who he was just by his name.

"Joan, we have to visit the MAC project team in a hurry." Jobs, who was full of vigilance, pulled Joan Baez away.

"Ms. Baez, when you have a concert, let me know. If I have time, I will definitely go and enjoy it." Tang Huan said loudly and narrowly.

Joan Baez readily agreed, causing Jobs to glare at Tang Huan angrily, not to mention being nervous about his idol.

Looking at the backs of Jobs and Joan Baez, Tang Huan couldn't help feeling a little emotional.

In the original time and space, Jobs and Joan Baez, a pair of men and women with a huge gap, of course, will not eventually get together, but they are still friends.

After Jobs traveled westward with a crane, Joan Baez and U2's Bono sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" for the departed Jobs together at the memorial ceremony.

Perhaps, this is the so-called friendship, it is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes.

……

Tang Huan quickly put away his thoughts. Accompanied by John Couch, he came to the Lisa project team and saw the world's first personal computer with graphical user interface features - Lisa, and discovered that it was related to the original time and space. The tragic fate in the film is the same, the step is too big and it breaks the egg.

The hardware configuration of the Lisa computer is: 5MHz Motorola MC68000, 1MB memory, up to 2MB memory, a 5MB hard disk, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, basic standard input devices - keyboard and mouse.

To be honest, the software system of the Lisa computer implements very advanced features, the operating system is based on the hard disk, supports memory protection, cooperative multitasking, built-in screen saver, advanced calculator program...

But there is one thing. In terms of user experience, Lisa computer has a very obvious defect. Its running speed is not ordinary slow, especially when scrolling and displaying files, it suddenly becomes "a ugliness covering a hundred handsome".

(End of this chapter)