Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 726 Tang Huan's Name Jobs' Fudge
Tang Huan's curiosity was really aroused, and he asked further: "Now that Jobs' biggest capital is NeXT, what did he use to fool IBM?"

One year after its establishment, NeXT ran out of funds, so Jobs valued it at US$3000 million and encouraged the richest man to invest US$1000 million, but Tang Huan was only willing to give him US$300 million.

Afterwards, the important shareholder of PeopleSoft and the billionaire Ross Perot, who got the news, had a strong interest in NeXT, thinking that this would be another interesting venture in the IT field, so he reached an agreement with Jobs to spend 2000 million, and got a stake in NeXT, making the company, which has no revenue, worth $1.25 million.

Faced with Tang Huan, who was unwilling to increase the capital, and did not accept the dilution of the shares, and only planned to withdraw the capital, Jobs finally pinched his nose and admitted that the richest man's $300 million still occupied [-]% of NeXT's shares, so as to increase the gold content of NeXT .

Unlike Tang Huan who was only willing to be a shareholder, Ross Perot served as the president of NeXT and assisted NeXT in promoting it. Jobs continued to hold the titles of chairman of the board and CEO.

Tang Huan just sold it to Jobs to save face for possible future needs. He was not really optimistic about NeXT's prospects, and there was no need to pay too much attention to it. So it's still not clear what Jobs has done with NeXT. .

"NeXT's product development progress seems to have accelerated a lot in the past year. It is said that the system prototype can be demonstrated very smoothly. And what Jobs promoted to IBM is the NeXTSTEP operating system used by NeXT computers. Ross Pei Luo played a very important role in leading the needle during this process." After John Chambers finished speaking, he turned his attention to Charles Simeone, "Charles is more aware of the dynamics in the software field."

"NeXT's operating system NeXTSTEP is based on the computer operating system microkernel Mach developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the Unix software suite BSD of Berkeley University. It uses Objective-C as the native language and has now been developed to version 0.8. "Charles Simonyi took over and said: "Since Jobs successfully sold NeXTSTEP to IBM, I believe that the microprocessors it supports, in addition to Motorola's MC68000 series, will also include Intel's Intel80386."

"Steve Jobs has always looked down on IBM's product design concept, but now he is willing to hand over his artistic works to the vulgar blue giant. How did he become so pragmatic and even overcome his personality?" Tang Huan, who had a temperament like Jobs, couldn't help being a little puzzled.

"It is estimated that in addition to seeing Apple's participation in IBM's RISC processor research and development plan, I also want to use this to attack Gates. Jobs once lobbied Gates to develop software for NeXT computers on the grounds that everyone had cooperated on the MAC project. But Gates not only sternly refused, but also publicly bad-mouthed the prospects of the NeXT project, which made other software developers discouraged from the NeXT project. Now, the contradictions between the two have become public." John Chambers analyzed.

Tang Huan nodded suddenly. If the marriage between NeXTSTEP and IBM was specifically made by Jobs to disgust Gates, then it would make sense.

The reason why the relationship between Jobs and Gates has reached such an annoyed level is that the key lies in the opposition between the two basic industry concepts-the former insists on the development of hardware and software together, while the latter advocates the division of labor between hardware and software. This is how Microsoft living space.As powerful as Tang Huan, isn't Fang Yuan and Zheru responsible for each other?

Both of these two people are full of personality. If they can't even reach a compromise in business, the result can only be incompatibility.

"IBM's mentality is difficult to understand. After reaching an agreement with Jobs and obtaining the authorization of NeXTSTEP, it announced the news immediately. Could it be to beat Microsoft?" John Chambers thought about it and said: "Gai After hearing the news, Ci realized that IBM might lose its dependence on Microsoft's operating system. He immediately made no secret of his anger and publicly criticized NeXTSTEP. The outlook is getting darker."

"It should be the entanglement of grievances and grievances that caused the parties involved to lose their psychological balance." Tang Huan expressed his opinion, "The operating system OS/2 used by IBM-PS/2, due to the high demand for system resources, actually The performance is not good, especially it does not have the function of graphical user interface. It can cooperate with the developer-Microsoft, and half-heartedly allocate resources to develop its own graphical user interface operating system Windows."

"This directly leads to the fact that MS-DOS, which does not even support multitasking features, is still very important on the IBM personal computer platform, making IBM-PS/2 always unable to distance itself from IBM-PC compatibles. IBM's The careful layout came to naught. In the end, only Microsoft, regardless of the manufacturer, took all IBM PCs and made a lot of money."

"NeXTSTEP should still be very attractive to IBM. After all, the MAC created by Jobs has left a deep impression on people in product promotion and the ease of use brought to users through the graphical user interface." Charles Simon Ni continued to analyze from a technical point of view.

"In addition to the well-known object-oriented programming, NeXTSTEP embodies Jobs' unique requirements in the appearance of the graphical user interface system. Compared with MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2, it is indeed much more advanced."

"For example, each program that is running will be assigned an icon with a full-color specification of 48x48 pixels. It is the largest and most detailed bit icon system at present. Even our graphical user interface operating system, studiOS, has to bow down."

"After IBM showed its enthusiasm for NeXTSTEP, those IBM-PC compatible manufacturers who also relied on Microsoft's operating system, including Compaq, contacted Jobs actively to seek the authorization of NeXTSTEP, and even said that if Jobs gave up NeXT The hardware business on the system, the operating system that focuses on the software side, is willing to pay a higher price."

"Of course, with the help of the tradition of convenient mobility formed with us, Jobs got a lot of inspiration for the design and development of the entire NeXT system, including NeXTSTEP."

Having said that, Charles Simeone turned his gaze to another participant, Richard Rashid, an important figure in Zheru's operating system department, and said with a smile: "Richard has made a lot of summaries on this. "

Seeing that his subordinates have done such a comprehensive and meticulous work, Tang Huan waved his hands happily, "Then Richard will also introduce me."

Richard Rashid adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said slowly: "One of my alumni at Carnegie Mellon University, Avades Tefanian, was hired by Steve Jobs. I was hired to take a senior position at NeXT, and I learned some more detailed things from him."

"NeXTSTEP borrowed our success in API - application programming interface, and also designed a similar set of development interfaces internally, and implemented it with the same advanced technology in other aspects. I believe this is also one of the reasons why IBM engineers recognized NeXTSTEP. Big reason.”

"Taking process management as an example, the abstract mechanism of 'everything is a file' in UNIX has increasingly revealed its shortcomings. In modern multitasking, especially in GUI operating systems, there must be multiple processes under the process. Threads, process concurrency and scheduling, thread sleep or wake-up and other requirements require the operating system kernel to have a better message passing mechanism to support."

"As a UNIX-like operating system, NeXTSTEP has made very commendable progress in this regard."

……

Listening to his subordinates taking turns to speak, Tang Huan nodded with satisfaction, and finally said with emotion: "Everyone's vision is still so broad, which makes me very happy."

"In 1979, we launched the 8-bit Fangyuan personal computer. At that time, there were dozens of types of personal computers, including Apple II, and the competition was fierce."

"In 1981, we launched the 16-bit second-generation Fangyuan personal computer, but not long after we gained a firm foothold in the market, IBM also officially entered the personal computer market, and IBM-PC became the most dangerous competitor."

"In 1983, based on the 16-bit architecture, we launched the third-generation Fangyuan personal computer that supports multitasking. At the beginning, we had obvious differences from our peers, and then stood out. And the types of personal computers were also eliminated tragically, and the number was sharp. reduce."

"In 1985, we launched the 32-bit fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer for the first time in the industry, and thus established the leading position of Fangyuan's computer technology standards. Even the powerful IBM began to be at a disadvantage."

"At the end of last year, under the favorable circumstances, we launched the fourth generation of Fangyuan personal computers - MMX, and began to officially promote the comprehensive popularization of multimedia functions in mainstream applications."

"Why is it not the fifth-generation Fangyuan personal computer this time? Because we all understand that compared with the substantial innovations of previous generations, this round of product upgrades is mainly a marketing need rather than a major technological breakthrough. .”

"Everyone, at this stage, Fangyuan Computer Standard's position is the undisputed leader in the industry. We have all the advantages in our hands. It can be said that our biggest opponent is ourselves, but technological progress will not be completely controlled by us."

"If we really want to do that, then we will be the next IBM. It is obvious to all that Big Blue, which dominated the era of mainframes, is struggling in the current era of microcomputers, and is even one step away from being split by Wall Street."

"As of now, NeXT has not had any real income, how many people have been sought after by its innovation alone? Maybe, they can really take the lead in the next wave of technological progress."

"Standing at a high place, even though the scenery is endless, I am more worried about our ship. Where is the next clear direction? How far can it sail?"

"Fortunately, you still maintain a pragmatic work attitude, which makes me feel at ease a lot."

……

Listening to the big boss's warning words, everyone was awestruck.The following regular annual spring developer conference, studioOS1988 press conference and other matters are getting underway in an increasingly intensive manner.

This afternoon, Tang Huan just came out of Zheru R&D Center, and while walking towards his office with his hands behind his back, he was summarizing the technical achievements he had made so far to compare with the overall roadmap, when he suddenly heard his assistant remind him: "Boss, Jobs is greeting you."

Tang Huan looked up when he heard the sound, and happened to see Jobs' unhappy look on his face. He laughed quickly and said, "I'm very sorry, Steve. I was so lost in thought just now that I didn't hear you."

Jobs nodded in relief, "Looking at your walking posture just now, it is no different from those old people. Don, we are the same age, but you are starting to look old. Follow my advice, practice Zen, and set aside time for meditation every day Bar."

"Nonsense, I'm in great shape, and I can become a movie action star right now." Tang Huan quickly waved his hand, categorically rejecting Jobs' promotion and bewitching, and changed the subject: "How is the development progress of the NeXT computer? At the time, you patted your chest and promised that you will definitely launch the product this year.”

"You have heard how popular my NeXTSTEP is with IBM. Do they still believe in a product that has no shadow? I came to you this time to talk about the NeXT computer launch conference." said At this point, Jobs had a look of resentment on his face, "Originally, I planned not to announce the news of IBM purchasing the NeXTSTEP license until the product was released, so as to give Gates a 'surprise', but IBM insisted on disclosing it immediately according to the process. Damn bureaucracy.”

"It's not easy to finally launch a product and see sales revenue!" Tang Huan joked unscrupulously.

"What's the matter with no income?" Jobs didn't think he was embarrassed, and he laughed, "Don, let me tell you that recently, Canon Japan plans to inject 16.67 million US dollars into NeXT to obtain a 1.25% stake in NeXT. Now, the value of NeXT has increased from 6 million to [-] million. U.S. dollars, rose to [-] million U.S. dollars."

Tang Huan, who was slightly stunned, laughed loudly, "With my name and your eloquence, NeXT can really cheat everywhere!"

(End of this chapter)