Rebirth of the Tech Madman

It has to be said that, as a legendary figure in the original time and space, Don Estridge can always find the most suitable challenger in the process of confronting the all-around personal computer warrior created by Tang Huan. ⊙Four⊙Five⊙Chinese⊙Chinese

Spreadsheet software is an example, as is dbase.

In fact, dbase has been on the rise for two or three years, and its developer is - Wayne Ratliff.

Until now, this person is still working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL.

Located in Pasadena, California, this institution, founded in 1936, has a great background. It is a subsidiary of NASA and is responsible for developing and managing unmanned space exploration missions. It is administratively managed by Caltech.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a language programming database project called, and Wayne Ratliff imitated it and developed dbase in 1978, but the name of this program was Vulcan at that time.

Wayne Ratliff worked on NASA's Viking program to explore Mars, writing the database management system for the lander's software support.

He developed it to manage bets on football games and make some extra money by selling it through mail order, but it's been a hit and miss for more than a year.

\u0026 was developed on Altair's cottage model with intel8080 assembly language, so its operating environment is cp/n.

As a result, it attracted the attention of two personal computer software sellers—Geetate and Hallashlee. They reached a licensing agreement with Wayne Ratliff and established a company called -tate——Ashton Tate to operate this software.

Because this name has been used by other companies, Hallashlee re-named it - dbase, and set the direct upgrade of the version to 2, that is, the price is 695 US dollars.

In fact, no code changes were made to this program.

But it creates a mature and stable impression, which is the brilliance of professional marketers.

Everyone patronizes to make money, but no one notices that the source of creativity has been wrong since its inception. Thus, a huge hidden danger will inevitably be buried.

Of course, Tang Huan is sure that the mirror is clear in his heart, but is it possible for him to shout all over the world?

You should know that authoritative and professional personal computer media such as byte and have enshrined Zheru's spreadsheet software, word processing software, and database software ebase as gods. Respected as the troika that drives the development of the personal computer industry.

Recently, the emerging field of the desktop publishing market has also been pointed out for the personal computer industry, but because the technical threshold is too high, other companies are temporarily unable to enter.

Such an evaluation, whether it is an ally or an opponent in the industry, has recognized it, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is convinced.

First of all, under Tang Huan's guidance. Zheru software is strong enough, as long as he wants to, he can crush any competitor technically.

Secondly, with this strong position, Zheru has made some technical authorizations that have been more and more positively evaluated, such as public coding schemes, interface specifications, and so on.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is Zheru trying to establish industry standards by taking advantage of his own dominant position.

But even if you can see it, what can you do? Most of the personal computers have the shadow of Zheru software, and colleagues have already used the bait thrown by Zheru. Support interacts with , , and ebase, can you stay behind?

Moreover, as the market situation changes, everyone begins to find out. The capacity of the personal computer market is too large, and the types of hardware platforms supported by Zheru software are also limited.

Therefore, following Zheru software, you can still drink soup.

In particular, the price of Zheru software is increasing step by step, which in fact leaves room for other products to survive.

This has made many small workshop-like companies feel grateful, and they are worthy of being the leaders in the practice industry. It's really kind of you, you didn't force your colleagues to death.

In essence, after the software matures, price increases are a matter of course, from $100 per copy to $250 per copy, how can Zheru lag behind.

In addition, with the increasing number of software functions, the development environment of Zheru software has all used C language, and assembly language will only be used in rare cases with special requirements for execution efficiency.

Due to the limitation of software complexity, Zheru software will naturally only choose to support valuable hardware platforms, and there are also great differences in function realization.

My own Fangyuan computer has full functions, followed by Apple's, and other types of personal computer hardware platforms are delayed. The mystery inside is difficult to discover without careful experience.

Therefore, the generosity of philosophers and scholars is required by Tang Huan's layout and limited by objective conditions.

But in any case, Zheru Software's use of its dominant position to exert influence on the software market is generally considered to be a leadership, forward-looking move,

In the final analysis, other small fishes followed suit in the personal computer industry and lived a very healthy life. Naturally, they were bored with making money, and they had no time or courage to play games that challenged their dominance.

For example, the company's Seymour Rubinstein, he has been thinking about grabbing market share from Tang Huan, and he once tried to form an anti-Tang alliance to kill the menacing Zheru software.

But in fact, it has been imitating, copying Zheru's public standards one by one, and its sales have grown from 500,000 US dollars in 1979 to over 10 million US dollars now.

Fighting back and forth is just for profit. No matter how ambitious Seymour Rubinstein is, he has to recognize the situation and admit that keeping a respectful distance is the best way to survive at the moment.

When Adam Osborne used shares to fight for free software for Osborne's first generation machine, Seymour Rubinstein still got involved knowing that Adam Osborne had received great support from Tang Huan. He even became the chairman of the board of Osborne Computer Corporation.

With such a net worth, Seymour Rubinstein refused confidently when IBM recruited him. It is already an open secret in the industry that Big Blue is dictating Microsoft. He is living a good life. I don't want to be so controlled by others.

\u0026-If the market prospect is good, I will naturally support this platform, and you don’t need to worry about it.

Seymour Rubinstein's ignorance of flattery has brought a trouble to IBM's word processing software layout.

\u0026-The accompanying software includes Microsoft's and operating systems, spreadsheet software, the company's financial software, and a word processing software.

Among them, it will be acquired by - msa company. Even if its financial software business strategy changes, what ibm successfully recruited is enough to fill this territory.

It stands to reason that Don Estridge's troika of Big Blue PC applications is in place.

Unfortunately, after being rejected by Seymour Rubinstein, another software that was used to replace the word processing software in this domain fell off the chain.

In terms of development technical difficulty, among the troika, the database is the most difficult. Zheru's ebase has been fighting alone in the microcomputer database market since its inception. It doesn't even involve the concept of a relational model, so it can only be said to be a make-up at present.

The middle level of difficulty is the spreadsheet software, which can be inferred from the products that have appeared on the market, such as , , and , and Microsoft announced that it is developing.

Also based on the analysis of the number of products appearing on the market, the development of word processing software is the least difficult, except for ,,, and unknown people like this. There are at least ten more.

Although the development of word processing software is not difficult, it is very easy to really do this product well.

All kinds of typesetting functions must be powerful and easy to use for users. It is this kind of background that makes Seymour Rubinstein so tough and would rather have a head than an oxtail.

\u0026-The text processing software that comes with it to make up numbers is the second weakest function. The key is that its bugs make users unbearable. In addition, there are such benchmarks as references, which immediately attract bad reviews. was directly reprimanded for damaging the image of ibm-.

Don Estridge, who was sprayed a little bit embarrassed, had no choice but to urge improvements, and at the same time set his sights on another word processing software that performed well.

In Utah, there is the largest religious university in the United States and the third largest private university in the United States, namely Brigham Young University.

The school's graduate student-Bruce Bastian and professor-Alan Ashton, in 1979, developed word processing software for the minicomputer system datageneral, thus was born.

Both Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton are very smart, which can be seen from their original time and space, and they can both be among the richest in the future.

The two retained the copyright and jointly established a company called --- to operate.

\u0026 the way of sales is very creative, they hire students to sell products and after-sales service, so they have won a good reputation.

In view of the failure of the previous negotiations with Seymour Rubinstein, which resulted in not being able to win over the most threatening to Zheru, and was provoked, so Don Estridge was talking with Bruce Bastian and Ai When negotiating with Len Ashton, the attitude was more pragmatic and flexible.

Are you willing to give up product development for other PC hardware platforms? No problem, as long as the ibm- version is completed as agreed, and ibm also provides the necessary technical support.

in such a low profile. Obtaining satisfactory negotiation results is naturally a matter of course.

This is also the main reason why Microsoft is eager to announce its own spreadsheet software--the main reason for the research and development plan. Before the Big Blue favored itself, but now there are more,,, to compete for favor. It is bound to be covered with rain and dew.

Looking at the charismatic Don Estridge in the newspaper, he announced confidently that the troika on the ibm-platform——electronic form, word processing, and database—has been built, and the construction of the factory will also be completed. Finish quickly. And the needs of users will be 100% satisfied by then.

This guy's work efficiency is quite high. Tang Huan put down the newspaper, muttered something to himself, then frowned and thought.

Although Tang Huan is vigilant about the changes in the US personal computer market brought about by IBM, he is fearless.

For him, the more famous or even big-name the parties involved, the easier it is to grasp them in the palm of his hand.

At this moment. The subordinates came to report, everyone has arrived, and the meeting can begin.

Tang Huan nodded, picked up the newspaper again, got up and went to the conference room.

Everyone, do you smell the smoke of war? Tang Huan asked casually with a smile while showing Don Estridge's photo in the newspaper.

Being able to face-to-face with an enemy of IBM's magnitude makes me tremble with excitement. In Zheru's team, there are many elites who are naturally aggressive.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in ancient China. More than 2,000 years ago, there was a historical period called the Spring and Autumn Period. The vassal states, large and small, attacked each other, and finally the survival of the fittest left only a handful of them.

Tang Huan said leisurely: The current structure of the US personal computer market is similar to this. There are at least a dozen kinds of hardware platforms. Countries compete for land and population, while enterprises compete for markets and customers.

Having said that, Tang Huan looked around at everyone present, Have you ever thought about what is the core of the market competition for PC hardware systems?

Standard. Someone's brains turned quickly, and he quickly answered.

By the way, it's just for the sake of standards. Tang Huan nodded appreciatively, In my opinion, the market elimination of personal computer hardware systems will be divided into two stages. Now it is in the first stage, those individuals with poor market prospects The computer is out, and the accompanying hardware standard disappears. After the last few most advantageous personal computer hardware systems are left, there may be competition for compatible machines within them, but the premise is that they have recognized this standard for hardware platforms.

After Tang Huan asked people to distribute the documents, he continued to analyze: Among the remaining victors after the first phase of elimination, our Fangyuan computer will definitely be ours. of.

Loud laughter erupted in the meeting room, but this also reminded everyone that if this happened, the good days of everyone's ease of use would come to an end.

Apple Computers should be a family, because they always have their own operating system, and control the hardware and software platforms in their own hands. IBM personal computers are also a family, just because they are powerful enough. As for other companies that use cp/ A personal computer with m operating system, no matter who is the boss behind it, will only be able to survive if it is not dead.

Tang Huan coughed lightly, However, there may be some exceptions for companies like Tangdi, Commodore, and Atari. Because Tangdi Computer already belongs to us, Zheru may provide some kind of support for it. Commodore And Atari's personal computer, because of its excellent game performance, it has achieved the feature of winning.

Tang Huan's analysis naturally integrated multiple aspects.

For example, Commodore, which was the company that Jobs planned to sell the entire Apple company, himself and Woz, at a price of 1 million US dollars, but was rejected by him.

Commodore bought the company that made the microprocessor in 1976, so it could keep prices low.

Commodore bought the company that made the microprocessor in 1976, so it could keep prices low.

Commodore bought the company that made the microprocessor in 1976, so it could keep prices low. (To be continued.)