"Is mismanagement at Apple isn't news, some of Carlton's insights about
Microsoft may be. While Gates is considered eveil incarnate in Mac circles,
this book shows him to be far more a patient friend than a vicious foe.
True, Gates has long made a killing by selling Mac programs but he once
tried to steer Apple toward a strategy that would have made the Mac, not
Windows, the software standard in the PC industry. The book not only
includes the full text of a 1985 memo that lays out that plan but also
reveals that Gates actually called executives at Hewlett-Packard Co. and
AT&T to make sure there was real interest from possible cloners before
sending the note.
"Gates repeatedly leaves the door open to tighter links, despite shoddy
treatment from mistrustful Apple executives. Take Apple's 1995 sneak attack
lawsuit against Microsoft over a tiff that Gates had thought he had
straighted out. Lambasting Spindler for Apple's "lack of candor and
honesty," he nonetheless reaches out a hand to an already-weakening Apple.
"I still feel that a constructive dialog between you and me would be
helpful... I think the Macintosh has a bright future," says Gates. It's a
much kinder and gentler Gates than we usually hear about now."
Max