Chapter 13: Limitations

In recent years, those with technical skills, resources, and capital were the first to enter the internet industry, and most of them struck it rich—not just with small fortunes, either. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both smoothly became billionaires. Their fame was not yet widespread; they were well-known within computer industry circles, while others learned of them through newspapers and television. That was how Su Mu found out about them. Li Ping’an, who didn’t like watching TV, had no idea who they were—understandably so, in an era when most people didn’t understand what computers were or what they could do. Only a small segment of the population had ever come into contact with personal computers, which were just beginning to enter everyday life.

The NASDAQ Stock Exchange, officially named the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, had few stocks related to computers and the internet. This securities market, founded in 1971, was the first to implement electronic trading on a global scale. Computers had long been present in military systems, but only in recent years had they begun to make inroads into ordinary life.

Even in this era, Microsoft and Apple had already started their rivalry. Back then, it was Macintosh versus DOS. At the start of this year, Apple released the second generation Macintosh. On January 24th, a young Steve Jobs, dressed in formal attire, pulled a white box and a square mouse from a picnic bag. Su Mu happened to read about the event and still remembered Jobs declaring, “Today, I want Macintosh to introduce itself.”

Then, scrolling text and a recorded voice played on the screen. Judging by the cheers that erupted at the scene, it was clear how exciting this moment was. From the perspective of 1984, such high-tech products were beyond the imagination of ordinary people. The Macintosh was the world’s first personal computer with an interactive graphical interface and a mouse that was affordable for the general public. Although the mouse prototype had appeared earlier, it was Apple that brought it to the world.

Jobs was a gifted public speaker, and his passionate presentations always won applause. It was that very launch event that piqued Su Mu’s interest in personal computers and the industry, although his understanding was limited—he just knew such a thing existed. He thought Jobs was a charismatic young man, and the story of building a billion-dollar fortune from nothing filled him with admiration.

This year, Macintosh had already been released, while Microsoft was still focusing on its DOS system—an operating system that required users to input commands for operation. In 1981, Jobs invited Bill Gates, who had just secured the IBM-PC operating system contract, to Apple to discuss collaboration. He showed Gates the newly designed Macintosh and its graphical operating system.

Gates realized the shortcomings of DOS and began developing the Windows system, but it would be years before Windows was truly launched. This was why Jobs later felt Gates had stolen from him.

Back then, Gates was just in his twenties, and Microsoft's revenue the previous year had been less than forty million dollars. In 1975, Gates had dropped out of college to start his business at the age of nineteen. Jobs was only twenty-nine, having founded Apple in 1976. The previous year, the Lisa computer had been priced at nearly ten thousand dollars but sold poorly.

At this time, there weren’t many software vendors supporting the new systems. Besides early adopters, only people like Du Zhong’s father, who needed computers for work, would purchase them—and even then, they were rarely used. Su Mu’s friend Du Zhong mostly used his computer to play games.

Indeed, these were curious times, which was why Su Mu didn’t believe the broadcast he’d heard days earlier, suspecting it was just a company’s vision of the future.

People didn’t really understand what computers could do, nor what they should do with them. Even top experts in the field could only imagine their future, often not believing themselves that their visions could be realized. They wrote books about their ideas, but sales were pitifully low.

Wang An, meanwhile, was not selling computers but word processing systems. With a personal fortune of over two billion dollars, he easily held the title of the richest Chinese person in the world. Even Li Ka-shing of Hong Kong had not yet surpassed him, though as computers developed, it was inevitable that word processing systems would fade into history.

At that time, computers were indeed less user-friendly than word processing systems—they seemed more like improved versions of traditional typewriters.

After watching a movie, Su Mu stopped by a couple of secondhand bookstores, visiting two before finally finding an SSAT exam prep book. The United States protected intellectual property strictly, so new books were expensive; Su Mu always tried to save where he could in this regard.

On his way home, he spent two dollars on two hot dogs. The vendor wrapped them in old newspaper with brown paper on the outside. Su Mu was surprised to see a headline: “Ariane Rocket Jointly Built by Eleven Western European Nations Successfully Launches Communications Satellite.” Americans had once thought rockets and satellites were cool, but ever since the moon landing, interest in space exploration had waned.

The first moon landing was in July 1969. After that, the U.S. launched six more Apollo missions, five of which succeeded, sending a total of twelve astronauts to the moon. Now, the Challenger space shuttle program was underway. Old Su often marveled at how all these strange new things kept appearing.

“Mu-ge, Du Zhong should be getting out of school soon. How about we take the bus and go hang out with him?” Li Ping’an suggested, eating his hot dog. “My parents left me fifty bucks when they went out. Perfect for a day out, maybe some arcade games too. Who knows if we’ll have tomorrow off. My parents aren’t home, and there’s nothing to do if I go back early.”

Arcade games originated in American bars, and in this era of limited entertainment, it was still the golden age of arcades. They hadn’t yet become popular in Japan, and the game consoles on the market were mostly American-made. In Los Angeles, arcades were everywhere, and young people loved them.

Su Mu had been a few times. If he hadn’t decided to take the SSAT, he might have agreed to go with Li Ping’an. But that wasn’t possible now. After a brief pause, he shook his head. “No, I need to go home and study. Once I finish the exam, maybe. It’s about three weeks away, and I still have a lot to prepare. This isn’t like our regular exams. I’m heading to the library later to buy some old test papers for practice—otherwise I might not have enough time.”

Li Ping’an hesitated, about to say something, but in the end didn’t. He wasn’t fond of studying himself, but he wasn’t the type to drag others down with him. He shrugged indifferently. “No point wasting money. My desk mate, Fatty Liu, just brought some prep materials yesterday. But I’ll bet he won’t even look at them—his grades are worse than mine. His parents wasted their money. Offer him a hot dog and he’ll hand them over, otherwise they’ll just sit there unused.”

That made sense. Su Mu laughed and replied, “Alright, ask him for me. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just buy my own…”