A love fest from the past

Ron Seybold — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:02:52 +0000

At times, Microsoft and Apple have been at each other’s throats during the past 25 years, jousting for the position of Most Innovative Computer supplier. Even though Google has eclipsed both companies in hubris aimed at that title, over the years small business users had to make a hard choice over and over: Windows for inclusion in the big, cluttered clubhouse of computer resources, or Apple for ease of use and a narrower neighborhood.

Many years ago, however, the companies felt like they needed one another. When the business user was choosing personal computers for the first time — and PC didn’t automatically mean Microsoft-based, Intel-driven computers, Apple and Microsoft engaged in a public lovefest.

With the weekend’s amore still in the air, we offer this sentimental look at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dating in public. Both their companies seemed like eligible bachelors back then, rather than the lifelong mates they’ve become for Mac business users.

Jobs and Gates in 1983

Bill loves Steve, and Steve loves Bill in 1983

By now the business user can have the intimate relationship these two boys swooned over more than a quarter-century ago. Fusion from VMWare as well as Parallels both provide a Windows sandbox to use the tools of the “PC,” as the world has come to call the Wintel systems. Can’t you just feel the love? If nothing else, Fusion and Parallels give the Mac user a way to run Microsoft’s Explorer and see just how awful the Microsoft browser is rendering Web pages for Windows users.

Bites of Apple » history

A love fest from the past