Adam Fischer provided a bunch of excerpted quotes from his lengthily titled book Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley (As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom) to NYMag. The article features a generous amount of quotes from the likes of Andy Hertzfeld, Tony Fadell, and even John Sculley just to name a few so it’s a worthwhile read for anyone with even an inkling of interest on Apple or Silicon Valley history. That said, this type of rose-colored-hindsight fueled “what if” speculation always tends to get under my skin a little even though I enjoy retrospectives as a whole. The reason being is that any examination of what could have been inherently invites an unfair comparison to what actually was (or is) where the hypothetical becomes largely unassailable. Any glaring issues seen in unfulfilled prototypes or mocks can be easily swept under a giant “well that would have been resolved if they’d shipped” sized rug so arguing with such logic is like chasing shadows. While most of these types of retrospectives are guilty of this unfair comparison to some degree, I feel the quoted excerpts from article are particularly egregious. Let’s start with good ol’ Woz talking about the Macintosh.

Steve Wozniak: The Macintosh wasn’t a computer—it was a program to make things move in front of Steve’s eyes, the way a real computer would move them, but it didn’t have the underpinnings of a general operating system that allocates resources and keeps track of them and things like that. It didn’t have the elements of a full computer. It had just enough to make it look like a computer so he could sell it, but it didn’t sell well.

As far as I am aware, Woz wasn’t even involved with General Magic in any significant way so the only reason to include this snark was for the added sensation.

Here’s some pot shots at Steve Jobs and NeXT.

Ralph Guggenheim: The NeXT machine was Steve’s effort to build his vision of a desktop workstation with lots of computing power and a CD-ROM. It was his attempt to show what he could have done at Apple.

Steve Perlman: It was big, it was black-and-white, it was clunky.

Andy Hertzfeld: NeXT was a revenge plot. That’s the reason I didn’t work at NeXT. Steve denied it and we’d argue till he was blue in the face. But it was true: The purpose of NeXT was to eclipse Apple. And I loved the Mac. I didn’t want to work against the Mac. But Steve wanted the Mac to fail, and so he started NeXT

The article even goes after the Newton by quoting an entire Doonesbury comic about it’s bad handwriting recognition.

I am not arguing that the Macintosh, NeXT, and the Newton weren’t without their flaws, or that even these quotes are inaccurate, but rather that we all know about these products because they did ship and were used enough to have their flaws made widely known. People bought and used Macintoshes. They bought and used Newtons. They even bought and used NeXT workstations. You can’t criticize or even debate General Magic on the merits of their products, because they didn’t ship anything in large enough numbers for anyone to care about let alone criticize.

You want me to know how great General Magic was? Great, me too! I want to know all the crazy ideas, all the awesome people involved, how fun it was to be there, why it didn’t work out, and where these ideas ultimately ended up. I’ll even take you at your word simply because I enjoy hearing stories from people about the technology they loved working on. What I don’t particularly care for or buy is putting down everything else in the process. For that, you at least have to ship.