After it arrived, Dell unboxed what he describes as a "beautiful computer - it even smelled beautiful" - and then immediately took it apart to see how it worked."I have this belief you have to take something apart to understand it," he says. "The idea that you could have your own computer and you could program it was just the most cool thing that I could have thought of, and that got me started."That fascination led to the start of his "Steve Jobs story." In 1979, when he was 14, he begged his parents to let him buy an Apple II, which he recalls was a pricey $1,298 at the time. It was the dawn of the personal computer age," Dell says. "To me, it was just amazing that you could write programs. "I loved math and I loved this idea of a calculating machine," he says.While taking a math class at his public junior high school in Houston, the school, fortuitously, got a teletype terminal. It may be downloaded from Adobe.Dell's fascination with tech began when he was a kid, he tells me, playing with his dad's slide rules and adding machine - "it used to make this incredible noise every time it would roll through" - before getting a National Semiconductor calculator when he was just 8 years old.When he entered the room at our meeting, it was as though the waters parted," Dell writes in Play Nice But Win. I ate it all up."By age 15, Dell says, he looked to Jobs not just as a computer pioneer but also as a business entrepreneur - after he'd met Apple's co-founder in the spring of 1980, when a then 25-year-old Jobs spoke to the Houston-based computer user group Dell belonged to."Jobs in person was even more compelling than he was in print. There were books you could get that described how each chip worked. The great thing about the Apple II back then was each of the chips was clearly marked and you could understand exactly what it was.
![]() Proposal Software License The Mac"Why don't you license the Mac OS?"Dell thought it was a great idea and told Jobs he'd pay a licensing fee for every PC sold with the Mac OS. Jobs offered to license the Mac OS to Dell, telling him he could give PC buyers a choice of Apple's software or Microsoft's Windows OS installed on their machine.After failing to convince Michael Dell to form a partnership, Jobs took Apple in its own direction, announcing new computers, like the colorful iMac in 1998."He said, look at this - we've got this Dell desktop and it's running Mac OS," Dell tells me. Jobs and his team had ported the Mac software, based on Next's Mach operating system, and had it running on the Intel x86 chips that powered Dell PCs. The problem, Dell says he told Jobs, was that there were no applications for it and zero customer interest.Still, Dell's company worked a little bit with Next and used WebObjects to build its first online store in the mid-'90s.In 1997, Jobs rejoined a struggling Apple after it acquired Next for $429 million, and he pitched Dell on another business proposal (as Jobs was evaluating Apple's Mac clone licensing project, which he ultimately shut down).![]() ![]() "The royalty he was talking about would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the math just didn't work, because most of our customers, especially larger business customers, didn't really want the Mac operating system," he writes. But obviously they went in a different direction."Dell smiles when he tells the story. Instead, Dell says, Jobs suggested he just load the Mac OS alongside Windows on every Dell PC and let customers decide which software to use - and then pay Apple for every Dell PC sold."It could have changed the trajectory for Windows and Mac OS on PCs. In October 2001, Jobs unveiled the iPod music player, followed by the iPhone in January 2007, a move that cemented the company's expansion into the consumer electronics market. "But obviously, they went in a different direction."That different direction led to Jobs continuing to evolve the Next-inspired Mac OS and retooling the Mac product line, including adding the candy-colored iMac in mid-1998. No way to ensure it could support those users.Still, Dell acknowledges the deal was a what-could-have-been moment in history."It could have changed the trajectory for Windows and Mac OS on PCs," Dell says. Well, nice try, Steve!"Another problem: Jobs wouldn't guarantee access to the Mac OS three, four or five years later "even on the same bad terms." That could leave customers who were using Mac OS out of luck as the software evolved, leaving Dell Inc. After fending off the question twice, Dell says he finally answered, in frustration, "What would I do? I'd shut the company down and give the money back to shareholders." Dell says the comment was "stupid" and "unprofessional."The quote went viral, and Jobs was clearly ticked. 'The archenemy of Apple'Dell and Jobs sparred over the years but remained friends throughout - even after Dell gave a quote at an industry conference late in October 1997 that led to him being viewed as what he says is "the archenemy of Apple." At the time, Jobs, back only a few months at Apple, was still trying to get the company on track financially.Dell was then asked what he'd do to fix Apple if he were its CEO. The iPad showed up three years later. He seemed understanding."But a few weeks later, Jobs used the quote to help motivate his team. I explained the context in which I'd said what I'd said, and what had been on my mind in that moment. I can see that isn't an opinion you hold.' So I called him. Torrent janome digitizer pro softwareHe needed an archenemy to rally the troops, and we were it. "It was rare to see any mention of the company that didn't begin with phrases like "trouble-plagued" or "close to bankruptcy." So for Steve at that moment, the gloves were off. "It's hard to imagine today, with Steve gone and an extremely successful Apple peacefully coexisting with a very successful Dell, but back then, ten years before the iPhone, Apple really was an underdog, truly fighting for its life, just as we had at several junctures," Dell writes. Jobs took a jab at Dell's expense, telling his team that Dell was "rude" and basically jealous of Apple's efforts, given that Dell had pioneered build-to-order.Here's how Dell thinks about the story today. He projected a large photo of Dell on the screen behind him, eliciting "lusty boos" from Apple employees. "We need dreamers and idealists - people that have an unbelievable and difficult vision for how the future comes together - to drive things.
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