Movie Review -Pirates of Silicone Valley (1999)

Have you ever wanted to know more about Apple or Microsoft? I have the perfect solution for you!

So, during the late 1970’s Commodore may have been responsible for the mass distribution of a home computer system that was affordable; computers for the masses not the classes. Apple and Microsoft were in their infancy while IBM was only involved in large mainframe business computers. A TV movie was made with their story of entering the home computer market called “The Pirates of Silicon Valley” (1999)

It’s pretty hard to summarize the movie because it’s more of a documentary than a movie with a plot but I will go over some key points.

The movie explores Bill Gates and the motivation behind creating MSDOS. It all started with an article in the 1976 Popular Electronics showing an Altair 8800 by MITS which was showcased. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had already dabbled with programming (BASIC) and came up with the idea to make an operation system interpreter for it. They spent multiple hours designing software for it and came up with Altair BASIC and presented it to the company. Bill Gates and Paul Allen set up the company for which is known as MICROSOFT and was successful in a contract with MITS.

In 1980 IBM contacted Microsoft to ask for an operating system which was to be installed on a personal computer 8086 series processor. Prior to that IBM only had business type computers in racks and terminal connections, nothing like what we have today. It was IBM’s attempt to launch into the home computer market. It was then that the deal was made. Instead of charging a one time licence to use MSDOS, Microsoft would charge royalties. It was a move that would make Microsoft the kingpin in the IBM / IBM clone market. A hard lesson was learned when BASIC was sold as a one time fee to Commodore.

While Bill and Paul were busy creating Altair Basic, the makers of Apple Computers; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were hard at work creating their first version of the Apple computer. They had presented the computer at their Homebrew Club and started getting orders for it. The buzz had gotten out and within a few months, investor Mike Markkula paid them a visit and sold the two Steves on the idea of an incorporated business partnership. The Apple I was primitive but a newly enhanced version of it dubbed Apple II was launched in 1977. What was not explored is how the Apple I was made. Did you know that they used a MOS Technology CPU 6502 (the same chip used in the Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and even in future Apple models). As a side note: MOS Technologies was acquired by Commodore around late 1976.

There was also a relationship between Apple and Microsoft. In 1977, Apple needed an interpreter for their computers and had contacted Microsoft for a licence to BASIC. In the film it shows Bill Gates being snubbed by Steve Jobs at the consumer electronics show when he tried to speak to him. At that point Apple was big and had a crowd around their booth. Bill was at the show with MITS. * What was odd is that Commodore was no where to be found, not even a shot of a booth, YET they had released the PET computer in the same year and Radio Shack also released the TRS-80. Together, the three of them would become known as ‘the trinity’. They would rule the computer market for the next few years.

In the film, Apple and Microsoft had a bit of a falling out sometime in the early 1980’s. Ever since then, Steve Jobs had been bent on destroying Microsoft. It all started when Steve Jobs had invited Bill Gates to view the next generation computer with a graphical user interface. Bill was to aid Steve in development but later accused Bill of taking the concept of the GUI (graphics user interface) and copying it. Well, Bill did take certain aspects of it and was supposed to help Apple in development but instead created Microsoft Windows which he tried to sell to IBM. I don’t know how accurate the film is to real historical events but if it is any indication of how things went down, it's definitely a prime example of how much of a shrewd businessman Bill Gates is. The funny thing is the movie shows Steve Jobs was invited to Xerox to see their copier stuff, strange it was a graphical interface used on the copiers. This led to Steve adapting a GUI feel in the Apple Lisa.

The movie progresses and shows how both heavyweights gain an upper hand and how they deal with their competition. I really do recommend seeing this documentary style movie. It’s an inside look at the industry without being ‘dry’ and boring. It’s just amazing to see how things have played out and progressed to what they are now.