Although there were thousands of attendees, most of them were staring at the stage with their heads tilted up. Tang Huan was condescending, searched step by step, and sure enough, he found the target.

Tang Dynasty? Estlic was a big laugher, but at this time, he was very serious.

IBM has always been a hardware and software grasp, to provide users with a package of solutions, the pinnacle of which is naturally the mainframe system System/360, no matter what model, the software interface can be consistent, so it has the most understanding of the importance of software.

Tang Dynasty? Estrich has a faint feeling that now Tang Huan is applying IBM's model, and after establishing his own hardware platform, he continues to drive hardware sales by opening up new areas of software applications.

Moreover, this speed is very amazing, in stark contrast, IBM's new products from the project to the market, to go through a variety of procedures, the least of which takes two or three years, if it takes three or five years, it is not surprising.

But Tang Huan has just been a full year since he developed the spreadsheet software CGrid and rose rapidly, which is just an IBM product cycle, but he has been making continuous moves in the fields of spreadsheets, word processing, databases, and now the so-called desktop publishing.

The reason why the huge IBM has been able to stand tall in the industry for decades is largely due to its conservative business strategy, which naturally cannot be compared with Tang Huan, who is running barefoot, but this market response speed is still worrying.

In the mainframe era, it is normal for the product life cycle to remain at about ten years, but the replacement of microcomputers is to catch up, from the earliest personal computer, the Cowherd Star of MITS, in 1975. It's only been six years now. But the industry has already begun to enter the stage of the third generation of personal computers that Tang Huan claimed. Obviously, if you move slowly, you won't be able to grab food.

How to break this situation of falling behind one step and falling behind step by step? Tang Dynasty? Estlic couldn't help but frown.

It is of course possible to catch up with IBM's internal resources, but even if you become the president of IBM, you may not be able to make all departments work together sincerely, and a few thousand dollars of personal computers cannot mobilize their enthusiasm at all.

So it seems. Then you can only find thugs from the outside.

Thinking of this, Don? Estlic began to have headaches.

In order to make the operating system DOS come out smoothly, IBM has spent a lot of effort to teach Microsoft, these rabble, there is no complete concept of software engineering, quality control, teaching is laborious, learning painful, in the end or making a wedding dress for others, it is really unwilling.

Tang Dynasty? Estlic's repeated shaking of his head provoked the surprised eyes of others.

Such an epoch-making product. Could it be that you saw what was wrong so quickly?

Tang Dynasty? Estlic's eyes were certainly not sharp enough to be against the sky, and he muttered a little. The various functions mentioned on the stage, the personal computer with small arms and legs, can really run with them?

If this happens, not only IBM's mainframe business will be challenged, but DEC's minicomputer business will also feel the pressure.

Steve Jobs and the key engineers of the MAC project team unceremoniously occupied the best position in the audience, because they had been paying close attention to the graphical user interface elements such as menus, fonts, and text boxes introduced in Zheru's large-scale office software, and naturally refused to have any opportunity to understand the technical details.

Jobs, who has become a billionaire, is now definitely in a state of youth and gold, so he is pursuing the ultimate taste in all aspects, which is manifested in the shopping hobby, from the razor, to the audio, to the sports car, to carefully compare the process design, and began to be enthusiastic about Japanese art, and even participated in related international exchange conferences.

When Tang Huan introduced OpenType, Jobs was in high spirits and scribbled on his notebook.

As for PostScript, he hasn't realized what it's really about, just casually and beside Bill? Atkinson opened a sentence, "Guess how fast and powerful the laser printer that Don boasted is, and how heavy it weighs?" ”

"At least 60 pounds." Bill? Atkinson replied in a nonchalant way, he was also not interested in PostScript, but was attracted to the graphical manipulation of PageMaker, and Zheru seemed to have made new progress in this technical field.

"Looks so stupid, I estimate it's 70 pounds." Jobs, who had a lot of experience in process design, mercilessly ridiculed Zheru's laser printer with his own aesthetic standards.

I have to say that although Jobs didn't guess correctly, it was not far off, and the real weight was 75 pounds, about 34 kilograms, and he occupied a single table on the stage, which is an obvious manifestation of the limitations of the current technical level.

Bill? Atkinson looking at John? Warnock, like most people, was stunned when he operated PageMaker, imported WordEasy documents, input images through a scanner, adjusted position, size, font and other attributes using text boxes, and output illustrated copies on a laser printer on a "WYSIWYG basis".

Obviously, this is the simplest desktop publishing process, and people in all fields see different meanings.

Among them, the media related people were the first to wake up and immediately took the lead in applauding. They have a hunch that the way they work in the industry may be completely changed by this desktop publishing system.

Bill? Atkinson turned to Jobs and said, "Zheru clearly has the ability to develop a graphical user interface operating system, and they should do something." ”

"Probably not. Tang insisted that the current level of PC hardware was not strong enough to support such a system. Jobs shrugged, "Don't forget, although the company traded for AppleIIe for Zheru's shares, I am still a personal shareholder of Zheru and can see some internal documents." ”

Looking at the way Jobs swore by it, Bill? Atkinson has largely dispelled his doubts. He belongs to the category of "geniuses" recognized by Jobs. Naturally, you will get a reliable answer.

But at the same time. Bill? Atkinson also began to think in his heart that there have been rumors within Apple recently that the three founders and Tang have an exchange of interests, and they have been compromising with each other in the process of cooperation between Apple and Zheru, which seems to be really well-founded.

Waiting for John? After Warnock completed the task and left, Tang Huan put Charles Geschke, another co-founder of Adobe in the original time and space, who was also from PARC. Geshke, introduced to the stage. and a demonstration of the second new software, Illustrator.

Illustrator was released by Adobe in 1987 and, like Aldus' PageMaker, originally ran on Apple's MAC platform.

And now, both have come out in advance, running happily in the high-end second-generation Fangyuan computer that also uses MC68000 microprocessors.

Illustrator is a vector-based graphics maker that can be used to develop fonts and edit PostScript.

Its best feature is the use of Béz curves, a tool that allows the user to draw any kind of line as he wants. and intuitive and reliable.

Of course, the Béz curve belongs to the category of specialized mathematics. As with all math topics, it is boring and obscure.

So, Charles? Geshke simply mentioned the concept and then moved on to the features that the average user was more concerned about.

Bill offstage? Atkinson, who was straight-eyed at the time, was working on a graphics package called QuickDraw at the same time as he was developing the MAC graphical user interface operating system.

Now, compared to Illustrator, QuickDraw is the word that Steve Jobs always used on his lips - garbage.

Jobs noticed the abnormality of his generals, so he pushed him, "What's there to be in a daze, although Don's software looks amazing now, he can only make his own products have this level, and the MAC we developed can make all programs running on this platform achieve such an effect." ”

Bill? Atkinson was fooled by Jobs, and finally relieved himself, and then whispered: "Perhaps, we can get the authorization of this kind of technology from Zheru to speed up the development progress of the MAC project." ”

Seeing Jobs' disapproving face, Bill? Atkinson quickly added, "In this case, it may be possible to launch the MAC before the Lisa project." ”

At the beginning, Jobs left the Apple III project halfway, and he took the initiative to retreat when he saw that the situation was not good, while the Lisa project was swept away.

This is a thorn in the heart of the young and vigorous him, and now he is being replaced by Bill? As soon as Atkinson was stimulated, he immediately changed his mind and nodded in agreement with the other party's take-it-or-leave-it.

See this, Bill? Atkinson finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, not that he was spineless, but because the research and development stage from 0 to 1 was too painful, and now that he encountered a technology that could be used for reference, he naturally wanted to pounce on his thigh without hesitation.

Illustrator's support for PostScript is relatively abstract, and everyone in the audience knows that it is very powerful, but there is no specific feeling, but Illustrator's vector drawing function is much more vivid, especially when you see how the font with the characteristics of the solitary residence is Charles? After Geshke was spawned step by step, everyone passed on their amazement to this magic.

When Tang Huan came to the stage again, he was holding Celine in his hand? Dion's first album cover, and sighed repeatedly, "That little girl who sang left the show so soon, and I'm going to take a picture with her." ”

After pretending to think about it, Tang Huan snapped his fingers, "Yes, you can use the second-generation Fangyuan computer to make up for the regret." ”

Tang Huan found a photo of himself, showed it in public, and then entered it into the second-generation Fangyuan computer through the scanner together with the album cover.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to use a third new piece of software, Photoshop, which is used to process bitmaps, unlike Illustrator, which offers vector drawing capabilities."

Although the performance of the current scanner is not flattering, but fortunately, Tang Huan and Celine? Dion's appearance passed, after PS a pass. It's not so miserable.

Tang Huan prints out the Photoshop-processed images. And distribute it to the audience to witness the power of this software.

In the original plane. Photoshop was introduced in 1990, after PageMaker and Illustrator, but the initial version was also only available for Apple's MAC platform.

The MAC has been updated from the original Macintosh128K to the MacintoshPlus, as for the specific hardware specification changes, the operating frequency of the microprocessor MC68000 has been increased from 7.8MHz to 8MHz, the memory capacity has been increased from 128KB to the standard 1MB, and the support is expanded to 4MB.

In 1987, Thomas Knoll, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, was a Ph.D. student. Noel. In my spare time, I wrote a program called "Display" on Apple's MAC, which has the function of making a black-and-white bitmap display display display grayscale images.

Thomas? Knorr's brother, who works for George? John Knoll of Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic - John? Knorr, when he saw "Display", suggested that his brother turn it into a program that processed digital images.

So in 1988, the two brothers spent six months working together on the project.

Originally, Thomas? Knoll wanted to rename the software "ImagePro", but he didn't think the name was already being used.

Later that year, Thomas? Knoll based on the advice of a visitor who attended the exhibition. Rename the software to "Photoshop".

At this point, Photoshop already has the ability to adjust color levels, color balance, saturation, and more.

In terms of business operations. The Knoll brothers started out in a short-term collaboration with a scanner company, using Photoshop to process images scanned by scanners.

In the meantime, John? Knoll traveled to Silicon Valley to talk to Russell Brown, an engineer at Apple and art director at Adobe Systems. Brown showed Photoshop, and both were successful.

Finally, in September 1988, Adobe decided to abandon ColorStudio, a similar software from Letraset, another company it was considering, and buy Photoshop.

Since then, Photoshop has also caught up with the desktop publishing craze and gradually stood out as the industry standard.

The high-end model of the second-generation Fangyuan computer is also enough to support the smooth operation of Photoshop, so at the annual developer conference in San Francisco, there was a spectacular phenomenon of three consecutive software releases.

Appreciating the admiring expressions of the participants, Tang Huan smiled with satisfaction, raised his hand and waved it back, "Ladies and gentlemen, just as you can see, the second-generation Fangyuan computer that provides a graphical operation interface, the WYSIWYG software - PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, the output device - the laser printer that supports PostScript, the font technology - OpenType, and all the links of desktop publishing are already in place. A new industrial revolution is about to begin. ”

After thunderous applause, Tang Huan solemnly announced, "PostScript and OpenType standards will be immediately released to the public, so as to lay a good foundation for the development of the entire desktop publishing industry." ”

This kind of self-sacrificing industry leader tone did not cause dissatisfaction, but ushered in warmer applause.

……

After leaving, Tang Huan met with acquaintances inside and outside the industry one by one in the temporary reception room at the back.

Robert? Bartley joked, "Our Wall Street Journal has just been overrun by your wolf-like salespeople and has started to fully adopt the second-generation Fangyuan computer office. But judging from today's situation, the boss's money bag has to be opened again. ”

"It's not that exaggerated, and it takes time for the product to be distributed." Tang Huan was modest.

"By the way, how much does that laser printer cost?" Robert? Bartley inquired curiously.

"$8,999." See Robert? Bartley's mouth grew in surprise, and Tang Huan shook his head helplessly, "Dude, you can't take everything that touches the personal computer for granted, and the Xerox product costs $17,000." This laser printer is equivalent to a computer, with a lot of CPU and memory, which specializes in processing PostScript command files, and then controls the printer's physical parts to print according to the instructions above, and now the price is as cheap as possible. ”

"I said why is it so expensive?" Robert? Bartley nodded knowingly.

Tang Huan couldn't help but laugh, fooled Reagan's economic think tank, and then came back to join John, who had been waiting for a long time? Warnock, Charles? "It was time to set up a stand-alone company for the desktop publishing system," Gershke said. ”

As soon as they heard this, the two couldn't help but perk up, only to hear Tang Huan continue, "The name of the company is Adobe, which comes from a river called Adobe in Los Artus, Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, and the two of you serve as president and CEO respectively. (To be continued......)