The conflict between the teams Mac and Lisa

Many Apple recognized the great potential of the first Macintosh even during its development, when to enter the market was still very far away. Moreover, Jobs considered the first work on the Mac, without exaggeration, the great, the most important for the company. However, not everyone was happy about this positioning and not support Steve. One of these employees was Rich Page, who held a high position in the division of Lisa. From this story you'll find out why there was a conflict between Page and Jobs, and how one person's opinion affected the relations between the two big teams at Apple.

By the beginning of 1982 Macintosh development ceases to be a kind of research work and given the status of an important project at Apple. Mac somewhat resembled Lisa computer, but its price was similar to the Apple II, so visible to the naked eye was a lot of competition between these products. In addition, Steve Jobs had a habit of constantly brag about the superiority of Macintosh division, often humiliating the dignity of the other teams.

Larry Tesler, who came to Apple from Xerox summer of 1980, he served as application software maintenance manager Lisa division. He saw great potential Macintosh and treated favorably to this project, but was concerned that many of the team members did not share his enthusiasm. Larry decided that it would be nice to call members of the Department of Mac and talk about many things related to the current stage of development. During lunch he met with me and Burrell Smith to discuss the details of our presentation.

By the time we had virtually autonomous Macintosh prototypes, although there were no further plastic housing. It was decided to place the prototypes in ordinary boxes of suitable size. I got a software written by Rich Page, based on Lisa Monitor, based on a system of UCSD Pascal Filer and having a fairly simple user interface. We were able to load the operating system in Mac Lisa Monitor on a floppy disk from the Apple II, then to use it to run various demonstration programs.

On the day of the presentation Burrell set up a prototype in the large conference room in the building of Lisa. Their team sitting at the table, and two dozen other employees who do not have enough space left to watch our demo stand. After a good introduction by Larry Tesler, we loaded our Macintosh and began to show a variety of programs, explaining the features and capabilities of our machines. Everything seemed to be going well, but suddenly in the conference room door very loudly and aggressively knocked.

Before anyone could say anything, the door opened, and then entered the hall Rich Paige. He was tall and bearded. Rich was the chief designer Lisa, was responsible for the software and hardware, personally ported and created some of the programs and tools that are used in their work both units. At that moment he seemed very angry.

"Guys, you do not know what you are doing! Macintosh is going to destroy the Lisa! Macintosh is going to destroy Apple », -! Rich began literally screaming.

Burrell and I did not know what to say in response. No one in the audience did not know. Larry Tesler sheepishly looked around, trying to find out something. But Rich was not going to get an answer, but only wanted to express their disappointment.

"Steve Jobs wants to destroy Lisa, because we did not allow him to control us! You do not understand what you are all waiting for! On a Mac, the software does not run Lisa software, and Lisa, no one can run the program from the Mac! This was even no one cares! Nobody buys Lisa, because everyone knows that the Macintosh is coming soon! "

It seemed that Rich is about to cry. With that, he quickly left the conference room, slamming the door. We were frozen in a daze. Some laughed nervously, but absolutely no one could explain the situation. Larry Tesler has already started to apologize, explaining that Rich did not express the views of all team members Lisa, when the door opened again, and with an angry cry Paige re-entered the room.

"And one more thing - he paused, staring at me and Burrell - I have no complaints to you. I know it's not your fault. The problem is Steve Jobs. Tell Steve all that I think about it! "

Again, he turned sharply and left the room, and we started to take bets that he will return for the third time. Larry was able to finish his apology, and we had a quick demo and Q & A session.

Burrell and I told Steve Jobs later in the same day that happened. He just shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's just a Rich Paige. He will survive. "

The next morning, Bill Atkinson called and told me that Rich is concerned about what happened yesterday. He invited us to lunch with Burrell to apologize. On the same day the four of us met during a long break. Bill explained that Rich was just trying to do what he thought fit to do. He still believes that he was right, but regrets that everything was so emotional. Paige knew that we Burrell did important work for the company, but was frustrated by the unpredictability of Jobs. We had a good time at dinner, but in my heart I realized that this resentment is bound to become a problem for us in the future.