Apple "Mystery House;" Microsoft suppression of innovation

[Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>]

At the Computer Bowl this Friday night, I was reminded during a
conversation of a little-known event that occurred during the days of the
Apple ][ computer. It is said that Apple, after declining an offer to buy
Visicorp (and Visicalc) for about $1 million, decided to develop its own
spreadsheet. Steve Wozniak ("Woz"), the engineering wizard who designed the
Apple ][, its floppy drive controller, and most of its software, went to
work on the project, which was code-named "Mystery House" (perhaps because
they kept on adding more and more features to it). But the product was
never sold; it was dropped as part of a bargain with Microsoft.

Some years later, Apple developed a powerful version of BASIC for the
Macintosh. But again, this product never saw the light of day. Apple once
again dropped the product -- reportedly because Microsoft refused to renew
a software license unless Apple did so.

A competitive BASIC interpreter for the Amiga is said to have been dropped
for similar reasons.

Microsoft has, lately, been trying to convince the public that it is
"innovative." But these stories seem to suggest that in fact Microsoft has
done the opposite, and has in fact worked to discourage the release of
innovative products by other companies. (It is now said that Microsoft
holds meetings for venture capitalists at which it mentions product areas
that it might want to enter -- thus discouraging them from funding
businesses in those areas.)

Does anyone on this list have more details about the above events? Or about
others in which Microsoft can be shown to have nipped innovative products
in the bud? A compendium of such stories might be very useful in debunking
Microsoft's claims regarding innovation.

--Brett Glass