Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 474 Graphical User Interface Chaos (End)
"It goes without saying that our graphical user interface system Free Desktop Environment - FDE is the most perfect. At present, things like VisiOn are all farces aimed at commercial hype." Charles Simeone answered proudly of course , "Take VisiCorp as an example, why didn't it ship VisiOn immediately, but launched a Visi suite?"

"People have achieved the purpose of hype, and VisiCorp wants to expand its market share." People engaged in technology research and development and those engaged in market operations have inherently different thinking modes.Charles Simeone clearly saw the truth of the matter, but the evaluation result was only based on whether the technology was advanced or not, which made Louis Gerstner quite helpless.

"We are a high-tech industry, and those tricks in the air are a waste of time." Charles Simeone is still indifferent to the threat of VisiOn.

Lucis Gerstner didn't want to argue with Charles Simeone, a stubborn guy, about the importance of technology and marketing, so he coughed lightly and said directly: "VisiCorp's move may affect Fangyuan personally like Lotus 1-2-3 The computer and IBM-PC market competition pattern. Now I just want to know exactly where our FDE is better than VisiOn, so that we can take countermeasures.”

"Before a fully graphical user interface system is put on the market, we need to define a practical standard for it, such as multitasking, bitmap icons, drag operations, etc. Apple's Lisa computer has completed this aspect Not bad. But it lacks a powerful enough power platform, and even the minimum system operating efficiency is not up to standard. As a result, it is fundamentally difficult to please users."

Having said this, Charles Simonyi raised three fingers, "The cold reception of the Lisa computer from the market just shows that a truly practical graphical user interface system must run on a hardware platform with up to standard performance, including CPU, memory, and hard disk. All three are indispensable.”

Charles Simeone smiled playfully, "Although Jobs' MAC project has been covered, we have confirmed that it is not equipped with a hard disk, let alone multi-tasking capabilities."

"According to Tang's prediction, the popularization of graphical user interface systems requires the arrival of the era of 32-bit microprocessors. The improved version of MC68000, MC68010, and the MC68020 under development, as well as our RISC architecture processor Holder, are such representatives. Therefore, the graphical user interface system that is eager to emerge now will fall halfway due to factors such as technical limitations and hardware costs, and become a fertilizer for latecomers to learn from experience." Charles Simeone finally made a powerful gesture, and said concluded.

Lucis Gerstner nodded after listening to what Charles Simeone had said eloquently, and then picked up a pen to do the math, "VisiOn $495, mouse $250, VisiCalc $395, VisiGraph $250 , VisiWord 375 US dollars, a total of 1765 US dollars, this is the price of the most complete application suite that may appear on the IBM-PC platform, at least one-third cheaper than Zheru software, the threat cannot be underestimated."

"That requires VisiOn to be able to run. At least a hard disk is essential, and it needs at least 512 KB of memory. In addition, to run software such as VisiCalc and VisiWord in this environment, there must be more memory."

Charles Simeone picked up another pen, wrote a number after Lucis Gerstner's calculation result, and then explained: "IBM-PC is not as scalable as Fangyuan personal computer. For example, adding content will It’s very troublesome. VisiOn is destined to only run on an IBM-PC/XT configured with a hard disk, plus more than 512 KB of memory, the cost of the entire system is close to 10000 US dollars.”

"You don't know how the Lisa computer, which sells for $9995, has been sniped by Steve Jobs for only a quarter of the price of the MAC." Charles Simonyi smiled and shrugged, " No one can match our advantages in high-end microcomputer systems under $20000."

"Although we are the best in terms of the balance between technology and cost, we cannot ignore unexpected marketing, which may catch us off guard." Lucis Gerstner stared at Charles Simeone, slowly Said: "I want to take the initiative, how about you arrange a demonstration of FDE?"

"What Don means is that after Steve Jobs' MAC has finished building momentum in the market, we can pick up a ready-made bargain whose concept is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and follow up appropriately." Charles Simeone showed hesitation.

"Don entrusted us with the affairs of Silicon Valley because he believed in our ability to judge the situation." Lucis Gerstner smiled slightly, "Don't tell me that you don't want to trample on these clowns, tell me Among them, who is the king of technology."

"You people who work in marketing are too demagogic." Charles Simeone shook his head with a smile.

……

Don Estridge was promoted to vice president of the personal computer business by IBM headquarters, but he didn't know whether he was happy or not.

IBM's management committee is very positive about Don Esterlich's work on IBM-PC, because he has proved that the personal computer business with relatively low technical content can indeed make money.

After the launch of IBM-PC, Big Blue benefited a lot and attracted great public attention. At the same time, the company's cash flow statement also underwent a gratifying and huge change, and the stock price rose all the way.

However, IBM executives are not very satisfied with the market performance of IBM-PC, because its profit is not as lucrative as the mainframe business, which makes Big Blue, which has been in the state of "making a lot of money", a little unaccustomed.

More importantly, IBM-PC has always been inferior to Fangyuan personal computer and has become the second child in the millennium. This is a shame for Big Blue.

After a so-called study, IBM's management committee came to the conclusion that if it wanted to catch up with Fangyuan PC and counter Fangyuan's aggressiveness in high-end products, it had to further strengthen the IBM-PC division.

Since then, a large number of middle-level managers in suits and ties have been stationed in the personal computer department in Boca Raton. Its scale has rapidly expanded and its status has been improved. It is reasonable for Don Esterlich to be promoted to vice president.

At the beginning, Don Estridge was quite happy. After all, in addition to advancing his personal career, he could also ensure the realization of the goal of breaking one million IBM-PC sales this year.

But it didn't take long for Don Estridge to feel distressed. This feeling of being promoted didn't seem to be good, and there was a tendency to be ostracized.

In the past, it was a one-sentence matter to issue an instruction to the lowest-level subordinates, but now, it has to go through several links in the middle, and the efficiency of work has dropped significantly.

Don Estridge, who felt more and more constrained, suddenly realized that the current personal computer department is no longer the non-staff organization that broke away from the bureaucratic system of IBM headquarters and freely carried out the "chess project" up.

Don Estrich couldn't decide whether the personal computer department was put back under the IBM headquarters management model. It was a good thing or a bad thing. He only felt that his heart was heavy.

Fortunately, at this time, VisiOn of VisiCorp brought the first graphical user interface system to the IBM-PC platform, and attracted widespread attention from both the industry and the industry, which made him feel much happier.

Regardless of whether VisiCorp's VisiOn is currently practical or not, at least it shows the infinite possibilities of IBM-PC in this field in the future. I just hope that the headquarters will not think that this function will affect traditional high-end businesses.

Therefore, Don Estridge decided to support VisiOn. After all, he felt a little guilty. The spreadsheet software that IBM-PC chose to pre-install was VisiCalc, but now it is changed to the more advanced Lotus 1-2-3. VisiCorp, which has a good cooperative relationship, was hit hard.

Just as Don Estridge was thinking about what specific measures to take to maximize the "compensation" for the motivated VisiCorp, Gates suddenly jumped out and announced that Microsoft would launch COMDEX in the fall before the end of VisiCorp's delivery of VisiOn. Launches Windows 250, priced at $1.0.

Note that Windows 1.0 is half the price of Visi On's $495.

Seeing this scene, Don Estridge's nose was almost crooked. How could this narrow-minded Gates be so blind and destroy IBM-PC's great opportunity to further win customers?

After thinking about it, Don Estridge immediately understood that Gates was afraid that Visi On would erode MS-DOS's territory in the operating system field.

"Asshole!" Don Estrich was extremely depressed, but he had no way to reconcile this conflict of interest within the IBM-PC camp, just like when Microsoft insisted on launching MultiPlan to compete with VisiCalc in the spreadsheet field.

Given Microsoft's poor performance in developing MS-DOS 1.0 for IBM-PC before, and the current effort to develop MS-DOS 3.0 for the next-generation personal computer IBM-PC/AT, Don Estridge has every reason to doubt , Gates does not have enough resources to make a difference in the field of graphical user interface, but jealous of VisiOn's lead, so despicable release of smoke bombs, so that users do not know what to do.

Besides, why didn't Microsoft report to IBM in advance for the development of the operating system of the graphical user interface? Don't you know who you are relying on to improve your current status in the industry?
Just when Don Estrich was about to call Gates over for a serious negotiation, Jobs began to make public remarks again, "The epoch-making MAC, suitable for all users, will only cost $2000 after its launch. I don't know if IBM-PC will VisiOn, what is the price for the entire system?”

Don Estrich, who roughly calculated it, was dumbfounded at the time. The price of software plus hardware was close to 10000 US dollars. This was a head-on collision with the commercial system provided by Fangyuan Computer and Zheru Software.

You know, this solution is currently in full swing, dominating the enterprise market under $20000.

Don Estridge, who felt that he had entered a dead end, quickly called the successor of Liu Gebrecht, the current chief designer of IBM-PC, Bill Sidneys, and asked him, in order to cooperate with VisiOn, IBM- Can PC/XT further reduce the cost.

Bill Sidneys is busy developing the IBM-PC/AT with Intel 80286, and after seeing the popularity of Compaq's portable IBM-PC compatible, he also intends to imitate the launch of similar products IBM-PC/Portable.

Seeing that Don Esterlich was quite enthusiastic about VisiOn, Bill Sydneys said directly: "I think the so-called graphical user interfaces nowadays are all flashy things and not worth our waste of energy."

"However, it can help IBM-PC attract wider public attention, and it is an opportunity to lead the PC market." Don Esterlich murmured to himself unwillingly.

……

However, Don Estelic soon no longer had to be in a dilemma.

The IT media who enthusiastically pursued VisiOn before suddenly took a big turn, and began to rationally analyze the practicability of the GUI. The FDE is the real graphical user interface, and other products are scum.

It turned out that Lucis Gerstner organized a visit to Zheru R&D Center to visit FDE. The number of people invited was 50, which meant that it corresponded to the 50 states of the United States.Among them are "Bit" and other heavyweight IT media in the United States, as well as celebrities in professional fields such as desktop publishing, graphic design, and computer-aided design.

The outside world has heard about the strength of the Zheru R&D Center for a long time, and everyone came here almost on a pilgrimage, but after seeing the actual performance of FDE, their saliva almost flowed down.

FDE can run on the high-end operating system Wanxiang for workstations/servers, and FreeDOS for personal computers. This demonstration computer used Fangyuan Personal Work and Fangyuan Personal Computer Ultra.

Both systems are equipped with hard drives, memory capacity is more than 1 MB, and the CPU operating frequency is also extraordinary. The Holder with RISC architecture reaches 50 MHz, and the MC68010 with CISC architecture reaches 20 MHz.

This hardware configuration imperceptibly shows that the hardware platform required by the graphical user interface system must have sufficient power.

The content of the demonstration specifically includes the use of desktop publishing system software PageMaker, Illustrator, graphic design software Photoshop, computer-aided design software AutoCAD, spreadsheet software CGrid, and word processing program WordEasy in the FDE environment.

When the visitors reluctantly bid farewell to the Zheru R&D Center, an editor from the Los Angeles Times lamented: "We seem to have a dream of a sci-fi trip, but unfortunately the time is too short."

The visitors invited this time are almost all pure users—from a technical point of view, they can’t tell the reason for FDE, but it is precisely because of this that they can better understand the true charm of the graphical user interface.

During the experience, the computer used for the demonstration was always playing a laser disc of Teresa Deng, a well-known female singer in Asia.According to the technical staff's explanation, this is to demonstrate the multi-tasking capability of the system.

The gentle singing voice unique to oriental women made everyone calm down from the excitement caused by being overwhelmed when they first saw FDE.

In graphical user interface systems such as Xerox Star, Lisa Computer, and VisiOn, the smooth scrolling display of text content has been achieved to varying degrees. FDE is no exception, and it does it better.

I don't want to give too much praise on this point. I just want to emphasize that the display effect of Adobe's OpenType fonts can be described as a higher level, and it can be said to be a great boon for the emerging desktop publishing industry.

FDE provides a "Start" menu in the lower left corner of the screen, from here you can find all the operations to control the computer, which is also the source of the meaning of "Start".

In FDE, almost all operation objects are represented by a corresponding bitmap icon, and can be dragged to produce wonderful results.

For example, dragging the icon of a text file to a trash bin icon called the trash bin means that the file is deleted; if it is dragged to an email program, it starts the program and prepares to send email.

I sent an e-mail to another visitor who came with me.

The natural fluency of that kind of operation, just like the logic of your doing things in reality, has almost no requirements for the computer operator.

Well, that's all I can say.Those of us who are visitors have an agreement with Zheru in advance and cannot disclose too many details of FDE.

In short, my feeling is that after using FDE, the current computer operation mode, and other similar products, suddenly become dull.

However, a perfect graphical user interface system like FDE has strict basic requirements for hardware configuration, including a CPU with a running frequency above 10 MHz and a memory above 1 MB.

Therefore, it is not yet available to the open public market at a price acceptable to ordinary consumers.

Even if you are a wealthy technology enthusiast, you will not have the opportunity to marry Fangze because Zheru has to consider keeping the technology confidential.

Of course, FDE has not always been in the boudoir. There are two types of users who can formally experience its functions. One is Boeing Aircraft, Ford Motor and other large contracted customers with strong capital and special needs, and the other is certain application environments of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. .

……

After seeing these enthusiastic reports, Don Esterlich's heart completely cooled down.

Under VisiOn, Microsoft and Apple use price wars to poach the wall, and there are philosophers who use technology wars to block their positions. They are doomed to death. I am afraid that even the survival of VisiCorp will become a problem.

(End of this chapter)