Computer world! But whose?

Two big software giants, one huge market, they seem not to mind each other but there is really a wild competition within. The way they rule the world by the products they develop is really amazing. Yeah, it is Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Both have their own "Operating System" OS, commercially available for the consumer world, OS X (Macintosh) and Windows respectively.
Which is greater, efficient, robust, secure, fast and stable? It is not that easy to validate them on all these aspects.

IBM, I would say "The Father of all" was first to manufacture personal computers(initially the "microcomputer", built with Intel 8088 microprocessor) branded as "IBM PC" . It wanted an operating system under its hood to make it fully functional. In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (possibly believing that Microsoft owned CP/M "Control Program / (for) Microcomputers" due to the Microsoft Softcopy, which allowed CP/M to run on an Apple II). But it was actually owned by a company called Digital Research. IBM was sent to Digital Research, and a meeting was set up. However, the initial negotiations for the use of CP/M broke down—Digital Research wished to sell CP/M on a royalty basis.

IBM came back to Microsoft again, by this time Microsoft purchased 86-DOS initially known as qDOS ( Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Seattle Computer Company which developed a variant of CP/M.) allegedly for $50,000 and called it as MS-DOS. This was re-branded as IBM PC DOS to run on IBM PCs (in fact IBM licensed it in no time) but, Microsoft kept developing MS-DOS within and distributed them to other IBM PC compatibles.

Believe me, there were 'n' number of other DOS distributions too. "PC-DOS, DR-DOS, Novell DOS, OpenDOS, FreeDOS, FreeDOS 32, GNU/DOS, PTS-DOS...etc"

Microsoft Corp. :
Personal Computing started with this three letter Operating System "DOS" Disk Operating System. Microsoft released its version called MS DOS in 1981. IBM PCs gained the majority of the market running either MS DOS or IBM PC DOS. All these were on a black and white screen and was command driven. It was all MS DOS for the majority of the personal computing world until late 1985 when Microsoft released something called Windows 1.0. It was not a complete operating system, rather a GUI extension over MS DOS and gained little popularity. Windows 2.0 was released in December 9, 1987 with little extended features. It was Windows 3.0 which came to the market in 1990 gained much popularity and had a few of Microsoft Office applications. It also supported overlapping of windows and improved capabilities of its native applications. Later we had Windows 3.1 in 1992, Windows NT in the same year (32 bit, first of its kind). It was after Windows 3.11 Microsoft came up with a new consumer oriented version in August 1995, yes it is Windows 95, the most successful version of operating system in its series. Windows 98 in June 25, 1998; Windows Me (Millennium Edition) in September 2000. The next release made a revolution by living long in the market from 2001 - 2007, Windows XP which still remains the most preferred operation system for the personal computing world. The latest - Windows Vista was released in January 2007.

Apple Inc. :
Well, what's special with Apple? At any cost, it's already bitten - the apple. To tell the truth, I knew very little about Apple until when it released this small little white biscuit kinda thing called "iPod" which revolutionized the way the world listen to music. Later, when I tried to make a little study on this company, there were quite many things which literally put me in surprise. Here is the history if you want to know.
Those were the days when Microsoft was pouring all its energy on MS DOS to capture the market and was also walking with its collars raised. Believe me, Apple Computers Inc. ( this is how it was then called and is recently re-christened as Apple Inc.) was already computing in the Graphical User Interface world, isn't that great?

The first product from Apple was Apple I in 1976 which was sold with out a monitor or a keyboard. It was hand designed and manufactured by Stephen Gary Wozniak, (co-founder of Apple Inc.) in Steve Jobs living room. Later when they ran out of space they shifted their manufacturing division from living room to the garage. Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977. Jobs and several other colleagues were inspired to build a fully GUI driven computer after seeing Alto Computer in Xerox PARC in the year 1979. Project Apple Lisa started in 1979 and after 3 long years of development, it was released on 1983. While Microsoft was still in hype with MS DOS, Apple, in contrary had its first leap into the GUI world. Apple Lisa was the first personal computer that had a mouse with it. Apple Macintosh was released in 1984, it was more enhanced than Lisa and was a huge success. Jobs resigned Apple ( chucked out from his own company?) in 1985 and founded NeXT. Macintosh Portable in 1989 which was bulky, Macintosh PowerBook in 1991, System 7 in the same year, Power Macintosh using IBM's PowerPC processor in 1994. It was on December 20, 1996 Apple bought NeXT which made Jobs come back into Apple again. August 15, 1998 - iMac, Mac OS X (operating system based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix) was released in March 24, 2001. Mac OS X aimed to marry the stability, reliability and security of the UNIX operating system with the ease of use afforded by a completely overhauled user interface. Several versions of Mac OS X were released and were named after "Big Cats" namely Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and Leopard which is the latest.

Isn't it really amazing that Apple was the first in introducing many revolutionary products to the personal computing world? Right from the GUI interface, the mouse, True Type fonts, yes Apple (Steve Jobs) was the one to design the True Type fonts. Apple also changed the way we listen to music after introducing iPod and now the revolutionary iPhone. I really wonder what in heavens are they developing next that would blow the world.

Now, whose computer world is this? Apple or Microsoft?
Apple: Really cool looks, beautiful desktop themes, hard and stable unix kernel within, fast, secure and also comes with a beautiful hardware.
Microsoft: Huge market value, occupies the majority of the desktop market, Vista - equally good in look and feel as Mac OS X and also secure.
I would say it's neither of them but all YOURS. When Apple could have stared in a garage, Infosys in an apartment, I'm sure that there are many such garages and apartments vacant all around the world. I don't literally meant that you have to start from there, but I would like to make you understand that there are equal opportunities for each and every one to start a revolution in this industry in particular.
I liked the speech given by Steve Jobs in Stanford University, I'm really thrown back by the phrase that he used. "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". All you need is a creative mind, thirsty heart and a will to do something. I love computers,this made me write this blog. Linux is my Operating System and I love it.

It's May 10th

The month of May always reminds me of some special thing that happens in almost all the churches. Yes, the VBS - Vacation Bible School. I never missed a chance to attend or take part in VBS.

I remember the days that I spent in Wesley Church, Kotagiri. Being summer, March, April and May are considered to be the months of flowers, the Flower Show happens in the month of May and Ooty will be overcrowded. We usually have guests in our house during this season.
Guests at home, I become the tourist guide for them. This brings a clash between touring and VBS and I refrain myself from going there. My parents would desperately want me to attend VBS while the tourist guide post will be handed over to my brother, yeah elder brother. He is 7 years older than me, "Berlin Paul".

All the time in Wesley Church - Kotagiri, I've either attended or volunteered VBS. It was during my college days that I involved myself in playing the role of a Director through Scripture Union. My first location as a VBS director was in Ooty. Bro. Kirubagaran was the lead and I backed him as I knew to play guitar. There were two other directors and this was their first experience so they had to learn so much. Even I had to do the same thing. Unfortunately I couldn't be there for the last three days as I had one last semester exam on 9th. I missed the final day programme.

The next location on the same month (starting 11th -20th) was in Trichy itself, the place I studied. It was in Burma colony near Ordinance Factory. Here my college mate Bro. Shelton Bright was taking the lead. We both had a nice time all the days growing more and more closer to Him. This was my first VBS where I was present for 10 days as a director.

I still had one more round to go. This was with Bro. Kirubagaran again in a remote slum just for 4 days. I stayed in his house where he also runs an old age home named Shalom. We commuted by bike almost 12 kilometers one way. We also had 2 more people who joined us to help. This was in the year 2005.

Next year May 2006, I was sent to Tanjore, St. Peters church. This time I was in trouble as the team lead didn't turn up. We should be 5 directors in all but we were only 3 and one of us had no prior experience playing the role as a director. I called up Mohan anna (SU staff in trichy) and explained him the situation and he asked me to run the whole show. The next morning we had 2 more people joining the crew, finally we were 5 in all. I should mention about Charles Wesley, one among the two who became my best companion and co-operated with me through the entire course. This VBS was a learning curve in my life as I had to take the responsibility of each and evey activity that was going on.

So what is significant of May 10?
Yes, it is the final day programme which ends the year's VBS. Being a director, this is when you've got to pour out all your energy to make it a success. It is mostly because that the parents of all the children will be present and they are gonna witness what their child has learnt all these days.
It begins with a public procession where every child with a crown on the head, march across their locality. The procession ends in the place where the rest of the program is scheduled. One main thing to be considered is that you start on time and finish it on time. You bid good bye to the children, apologize with the teachers if you had not been kind to them during situations, etc etc. Some time you cry or the teachers cry, the children wouldn't let you go, all this happens.
Today, there are numerous children in various churches celebrating their last day in VBS. I remember them all and wave them good bye! I pray that every child grow in the fear of the Lord, reflect Him in all they do and be as living testimonies for Him.
Good Bye! Meet you all in the next VBS.