he (with Woz) invented the personal computer
as we know it (a plastic box with a keyboard)
No they didn't. IBM's first personal computer, IBM 5100 was introduced in 1975, one year earlier.
Before that Xerox Alto was introduced in 1973, and while never commercially produced -- get this, it had a GUI, a mouse, an object oriented OS and an Ethernet card.
And before that, the personal computers we know today were perfectly described in a book from 1949, called "Giant Brains, or Machines That Think", then later plans for building Simon were published: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/berkeley/simonfaq.ht...
And between 1950 and 1977, the year Apple II came along, there were many other good products released.
he made the GUI available to mere mortals
Making stuff available to mere mortals means making it a commodity. If I could afford a cheap and usable personal computer (in my country in 1994), it's because of Microsoft, not Apple.
So we are in disagreement.
he invented the desirable smartphone
No, Blackberry did.
What did Gates really invent?
Neither invented anything really. It's just plain, gradual evolution with ideas originating at least 30 years back.
> IBM's first personal computer, IBM 5100 was introduced in 1975, one year earlier
> Before that Xerox Alto was introduced in 1973
How much did the IBM 5100 cost? The Alto wasn't even sold. Can they really be considered "the personal computer as we know it"? If we go that route, any desk-sized single-user mini-computer would be "the first PC". That's not the case.
> it had a GUI, a mouse, an object oriented OS and an Ethernet card
No, it hadn't (ethernet excepted). Smalltalk/80 (launched in, you guessed, 1980) was the first real product (one you could buy) and class-based OO was only introduced with Smalltalk/76. The Alto never went past R&D stage. Its descendants did (in the 80's).
> Making stuff available to mere mortals means making it a commodity.
No. It means making stuff with the right price/performance. Like I said before, the personal computer as we know it, did not exist before Woz added a keyboard and Jobs added a plastic case. Before the first Mac no ordinary person would be able to buy a GUI-capable computer. After it, every computer got a GUI (sometimes, grafted on top of a very rudimentary OS)
> If I could afford a cheap and usable personal computer (in my country in 1994), it's because of Microsoft, not Apple.
If you got your first computer in 1994, you already missed the most interesting part of the PC evolution. Bad for you - it was one hell of a party.
Before that Xerox Alto was introduced in 1973, and while never commercially produced -- get this, it had a GUI, a mouse, an object oriented OS and an Ethernet card.
And before that, the personal computers we know today were perfectly described in a book from 1949, called "Giant Brains, or Machines That Think", then later plans for building Simon were published: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/berkeley/simonfaq.ht...
And between 1950 and 1977, the year Apple II came along, there were many other good products released.
Making stuff available to mere mortals means making it a commodity. If I could afford a cheap and usable personal computer (in my country in 1994), it's because of Microsoft, not Apple.So we are in disagreement.
No, Blackberry did. Neither invented anything really. It's just plain, gradual evolution with ideas originating at least 30 years back.