America 1982-Chapter 608 - 135: Facing the Future_3

Jay had lost hope upon hearing Jason’s reaction, and Tommy and Jason looked nothing like the stereotypical nerds he had imagined.

To his surprise, Tommy, who seemed easy to deceive, stopped Jason from continuing and instead inquired about various technical details of the development, including how user interfaces and window menus were implemented. Seeing the earnest tone in which he asked the question, Jay had no choice but to continue bluffing in the direction of operating system development, claiming that with the right chip, it would be capable of multitasking and have powerful graphics processing capabilities.

Then, despite Jason’s objections, Tommy resolutely decided to invest in the operating system, with funding to be provided in stages according to the development progress, tentatively over five years, with the first investment being half a million dollars.

Looking back, Jay Miner felt like the contract he signed was more like exchanging dreams for dollars.

Although Amiga Corporation had injected new funds, its dream of becoming a world-famous gaming company, which it had held since its inception, had completely diverged to focus on developing a real computer graphics operating system.

Winton Seraph hadn’t witnessed the meeting with Jay Miner, but he heard about it from Tommy afterward. After listening to the reasons for Tommy’s investment, Professor Winton understood that the young man’s success was not due to luck, but to his vision.

It was the beginning of 1984, and the market only had Apple computers with a rudimentary graphical interface, which, restricted by the display, could only show in black and white. As for other computer systems, whether it was Windows or Unix, they were all character command-line interfaces that would give a headache to anyone who had not used a computer before.

Tommy had said during their conversation that the graphical interface of operating systems was the key to making computers a necessity in ordinary households. You couldn’t expect consumers to learn a myriad of complex DOS commands to buy a computer; instead, computers should learn to adapt to consumers, making them appear less intimidating and arrogant.

It wasn’t until one month after Microsoft launched Windows 2.0 in 1987 that AmigoOS 1.0, perfected by nearly a hundred graduates from Stanford University over five years, entered the market with the support of computer manufacturers Compaq and Dell, led by Benjamin Rosen and Stephen Binns, respectively.

It had brighter colors than the Apple system and was more intuitive than Windows 2.0; its only drawback was that it was only compatible with Intel’s 386 chip, which had been released for less than two years, while the other two systems dominating the market ran smoothly on lower-end 32-bit processors.

At that time, this operating system was only bundled with Compaq and Dell high-end machines priced at over eighteen hundred dollars and was not sold separately. Only about sixty thousand high-end computers equipped with the AmigoOS system were sold on the market, with a portion in Europe, and only about forty thousand in the United States.

At that time, Amgia had already implemented features such as multitasking with windowed operations, screen layout changes, task manager, word processor, drawing application, printer matching manager, scheduler, and more. Furthermore, it included the OSS software that met the daily document processing needs of non-professionals and two small games that demonstrated the system’s smooth performance and powerful graphic colors.

Winton knew that Jason, Jay, and others had approached Tommy multiple times. Jason even came to ask him to persuade Tommy to agree to optimize or even slim down AmigaOS, so that the system could run on lower-end computers and quickly penetrate the low-end computer market.

However, Tommy rejected them every time, leading to Jason frequently arguing over the phone with Tommy and even becoming so stressed that he went to see a psychologist. After all, everyone realized that AmigaOS was a superior system, and even executives from Compaq and Dell approached Jason and Jay, hoping to make this fantastic operating system run on mid- and low-end computers.

"Two months ago, Intel announced that its latest 486 processor was available for unlimited supply, turning the 386 processor into a cheap commodity that even ordinary households could afford. And then you came back, ready to sell Amiga?" Winton Seraph sighed, "Quinn was right about you, you’re like a fly, only attracted by the stench of money."

"No, it’s not just that. I’ve been waiting, not for the processors to drop in price, but for the return on the donations I’ve made to these buildings over the years. I intend to embed a graphics web browser in AmigaOS, along with the MCI-Mail software that waives the annual fee for one year. I want to let everyone go back and connect the phone line, so they can open the door to a new world with Amiga." Tommy’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Winton Seraph, filled with fervor:

"Moreover, I guess you wouldn’t pay attention to certain smaller affairs, such as patents related to interactive hypertext and hyperlinks supported by web browsers, which have already been registered and owned by Stanford University, protected by the U.S. Constitution," he added.

"You know that the court will ultimately not support Stanford’s claims to these patents you got Stanford to secure early, even without lobbying from other companies, because it would mean the working environment and methods of the Internet and browsers would have to change," Professor Winton said confidently after hearing that Stanford University had registered the patents for those successful research developments.

Among those projects were some that actually constituted the standard work of packet-networking interconnectivity. If Stanford University applied for patents on these and they were eventually recognized as valid by U.S. courts, as the chairman of the International Federation for Information Processing, he would be the first to oppose it. He was so certain that the court would ultimately reject the patents that he could calmly tell Tommy that, even if the patents required a slow deliberation due to lack of relevant supervision and references, there would only be one outcome - they would be invalidated.

"I know," Tommy said.

This answer made Winton involuntarily remove his glasses as he looked at Tommy with puzzlement:

"Kid, I’ve seen many computer professionals, some of whom support a free and open Internet, while others oppose it. But you are the most contradictory of them all. You work hard to push for the communications law to define Internet information and regulatory authority, looking like someone who wishes for a truly open and free Internet. Yet now you’re telling me that you’ve set up a powerful obstacle to Internet freedom, intentionally getting Stanford to apply for patents related to the key to the Internet world, the browser. It looks like you oppose Internet freedom. So, tell me, is a free and open Internet more important to you, or is a closed Internet more important?"

Tommy shrugged, "Whether the Internet is free or not is not important to me. What’s important to me is whether the Internet belongs to me, whether it belongs to Stanford."

"So?" Winton asked with a half-smile.

"So, if users use the key provided by Stanford to open the door to the Internet, then the Internet can be free and open for them. If other manufacturers want to use their keys to help users open the door to the Internet, all Stanford has to do is shut out those manufacturers and users until they come back with the keys provided by Stanford to open the door," Tommy leaned forward, moving closer to his professor:

"I want the audience who sees this advertisement to understand one thing, that choosing AmigaOS means they can sit at home and face the future."

"You want to use the non-discriminatory FCC clause and the patents you got Stanford to hold, to delay as long as possible companies like Apple and Microsoft, who have a large market share, from helping ordinary users to open the door to the Internet, using this time to rapidly devour the market," Winton sighed in frustration. As the godfather of the Internet, the bastard had made his intentions so clear, how could he not understand Tommy’s purpose:

"You didn’t choose to hold the patents yourself, not because you are magnanimous, but because you understand that if you held those worthless patents, the big companies wouldn’t care at all; they would just infringe and copy to quickly release. But if the holder is Stanford University, if they dare to infringe on Stanford’s legitimate rights before the court invalidates such patents that hinder industry development, Stanford University and its vast network of alumni could let Microsoft, Apple, and even IBM know what real agony is like."