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Comment by sys_64738 | Hacker News Reader

Apple was largely overshadowed by Commodore until the mid-80s. The Apple 2 kept Apple afloat until they were pretty much bankrupt in the 90s. Then Steve returned. That's the real history of Apple that they don't want you to remember. Only those who survive longest get to rewrite their version of history.

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Not sure who the "they" you reference are, but the fact that Apple hung onto the II (and its many variants) for too many years while they tried to swing for the fences is not some secret. That Steve Jobs returned and saved the company on the cusp is known by just about everyone. I mean, there have been multiple major motion pictures on this...

With a HUGE infusion of cash from Microsoft.

Also known as a lawsuit settlement. it wasn’t that large, much less huge. The big commitment to was to providing Office.

Which probably had something to do with that anti-trust battle Microsoft fought right around then, no?

Definitely. They supported office on the Mac to prove that Windows wasn't a monopoly and paid Apple $150 million dollars in a cross-licensing deal give each company complete access to current IP. The thought was that Apple would use the windows IP to provide Redbox access to the new MacOS.

See Apple and Red, Yellow, and Blue boxes.

The C64 won the 8-bit PC race from 1983-1986 (earlier in Europe) but x86 PCs and Macs won the 16/32/64-bit PC marathon from 1987 onward.

It is well known that 1990s Apple struggled to differentiate Macs vs. cheap beige PCs running Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 that could run the same user programs (Office, etc.) And that Mac clones cannibalized Apple's dwindling market share.

Jobs killed off clones, and solved the differentiation problem with the iMac in 1998 and Mac OS X in 2001; subsequently the iPod and iPhone focused on device categories where Windows was not dominant, and the iPad beat Microsoft at its own tablet PC game.

This is a nice collection with terrific documentation of Apple's "vintage" history from the 1970s to the 1990s. For example you can compare Macworld/MacUser vs. PC World magazines at the same time to see both sides of the Mac vs. PC war/friendship, and history of the computing industry in BYTE.

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