Steve Jobs passed away.

Ofcourse, but Woz doesn't give credit where credit is due, he's too busy basking in his own overinflated glory. Without serious help his sloppy designs meant his Apple 1 would never have seen the light of day.

Comparing hardware with software?

Both were relatively pricey for what they did. Probably alan sugar and asian yumcha manufacturers did that.

Someone may arise, but I suspect it will be very hard with MS, apple, etc patenting everything they can, it is going to be darn difficult.

Open source hardware has been a repeated flop and open source software repeatedly forks and/or reinvents the wheel.

But they came in colors like pink

Google have money behind them and are going to put it behind a Linux operating system (Google Chrome). Money seems to lubricate wheels

SG1 wrote

real engineers.

The Apple wasnt just about hardware.

terryc wrote

That wasnt really true until the PC clones showed up.

There wasnt much in it price wise between the IBM PC and the Mac or between the Apple II and say the TRS-80 in the US.

Had nothing to do with that fool sugar, everything to do with the clones.

It was actually the VIV-20 and C64 which drove the real consumer product market.

terryc wrote

Someone already has with the kindle, the androids, in Samsung, Asus, Acer etc etc etc

they can, it is going to be darn

Didnt stop the kindle, the androids, Samsung, Asus, Acer etc etc etc

The android isnt, even tho its not been as successful as the iphone.

Or just copys the MS product.

Its been amazing what the iphone has done for non open source software tho.

Pretzl wrote

And it remains to be seen if it will fly.

Linux has flown like a lead balloon in the desktop market.

It aint about the money.

It's always about money, without it Linux will remain a lead balloon

Pretzl wrote

Wrong, as always.

It remains to be seen if it stops being a lead balloon for the desktop with google money.

Bet it doesnt,

Err, Redhat, Suse, Turbo Linux, Ubuntu to name ones(linux distros with money) that come easily to mind.

Linux became a lead ballon when they decided to make it more like microsoft OSs and the fate was sealed when it was decided to make it fool proof.

terryc wrote

Nope, it always was a lead balloon on the desktop.

They did nothing of the sort.

And those that dont like that approach just use one of the distros that doesnt do that.

If you are going to include such home computers in the discussion, then the credit should got to Clive Sinclair - it was Sinclair that brought computers (and calculators before that) to the masses with the ZX80, ZX81, then the ZX Spectrum. While the Spectrum had many contemporaries, many of which were technically better (such as the Commodore 64 and of course the brilliant Acorn BBC Micros), the Spectrum was by far the biggest player.

David Brown wrote

never was.

the Apple II and say the TRS-80 in the

You have to when discussing the original claim about A CONSUMER PRODUCT.

Nope, that was no more than a fart in the bath in that soggy little island.

Nope, just to that soggy little island.

contemporaries, many of which were technically

And which mattered to a hell of a lot more than just that soggy little island.

Nothing particularly brilliant about it.

Like hell it was outside that soggy little island.

The C64 left it for dead market wise.

The is precisely what Apple has done. They have always been the more user-friendly system and the more expensive. Apple has made usable what was only used by computer hobbyists.

Frenton wrote

would otherwise have found them too

Nope.

Mindlessly silly with the Apple II.

Even sillier with the Apple II.

Utterly mangled all over again. They werent the only ones to do that and werent even first to do that either.