game trailblazer

Chapter 20 Graphical OS Perspectives

In the following days, Zhang Lexing decided to stay in VisualSystem Company honestly. On the one hand, it was because he had already had two good harvests, so he should let the people below go and run around by himself. On the other hand, Zhang Lexing couldn’t remember If there are any suitable investment projects, just stay in the old nest and pay attention to the company's development by the way.Of course, Zhang Lexing is still very concerned about the investment projects of Honghe Fund. He also specifically explained to his investment managers that any projects that are rejected must send a copy of the materials.

After returning, Zhang Lexing rested at home for a day. The next day, he came to the company and slipped to the operating system development team to discuss the future development of the operating system with Joey. The members cheered.Leaving the operating system development team, Zhang Lexing was about to go back to his office to take a rest, but he was caught by Yang Xinxin who was walking towards him.Fortunately, Zhang Lexing also wanted to discuss with Yang Xinxin, so he invited Dr. Shangyu along the way, and the three of them plunged into the small conference room and began to plot.

"Tell me about the situation. If I hadn't happened to be on a business trip, I wouldn't have let you stay until today." As soon as she sat down, Yang Xinxin couldn't wait to type.

"It's okay, but I just invested in two small companies." Zhang Lexing said modestly, but in fact he was very proud. Since someone is willing to listen to him show off, it is natural that he has shared all his investment experiences a while ago.

"The development prospects of these two companies should be pretty good. If they are not enough to invest in any project in the future, we must do more research and see clearly." Dr. Yu seems to be a little worried about these two investments, but it can be seen that it is also out of love for Zhang Lexing concern.

But Yang Xinxin was not so polite, she curled her lips: "I don't know what's good about these two companies."

In the opinion of Dr. Yu and Yang Xinxin, Zhang Lexing's investment was a little too impulsive. The Adobe company didn't know what it could come up with, and the other RSI company was even worse, with financial chaos in a mess. .Zhang Lexing knew that both of them were well-intentioned, and worried that he would lose money if he invested indiscriminately. However, Zhang Lexing knew the future of these two companies quite well, and of course he had full confidence. Unfortunately, he couldn't explain the reason, so he had to change the subject.

"Sister Xin, what are you busy with this business trip?" Zhang Lexing turned his attention to Yang Xinxin.

"It's not a big deal, but there are two small companies in Oakland that have written some interesting programs. I'll take someone to take a look." Yang Xinxin said very plainly, but the smile on his face showed that this time The harvest is certainly not small.

Although Yang Xinxin is a talented student who graduated from a prestigious school, she doesn't know anything about computers, which are fashionable gadgets. It can be said that she is the No. [-] computer novice in our company, second only to the janitor. important role on.With the gradual popularity of the Kylin system, Yang Xinxin also figured out a way to quickly enhance the company's product competitiveness, which is to use the company's cash reserves to acquire some mature codes.Thanks to the popularity of microcomputers, there are so many small software companies in the United States at this time, and there are many individual programmers alone. Many people just embark on the road of programming out of love for computers. They do not have a clear business goal. Even many people don't even know the true value of the code in their hands.Under such circumstances, some people handed over their works in a daze. As a result, they made others grow rapidly, but they themselves became food for others.

"You should confiscate other people's money." Zhang Lexing asked weakly.

"Do I look like such a heartless person!" Yang Xinxin gave Zhang Lexing a hard look, and then said: "Actually, the people in those two companies are quite simple, and they started a company and wrote software like others before they figured out how to make money. , if I am more ruthless, I can get them the software by putting a list of creators on the software."

"Yeah, it's too simple. It's like the Gates I met back then. Not only did I pay for it, but I didn't even get the software I wrote. It's incomparable." Dr. Yu also answered, which sounded rather strange. sigh.

When it comes to software development, Zhang Lexing thought of his own case: "Buying from outside is one way, but our own technical force is more important. In addition to the developers in the company, I think it is time to consider setting up a special research and development organization. Do research. It doesn’t need to be very big at the beginning, you can start with the application technology related to the operating system. I believe that with the future development of the company, the gradually enhanced R&D strength will bring more room for development.”

"What you said is very reasonable, but I don't know if the company has the conditions to do this now. Xiner, how is the company's financial situation now?" Dr. Yu asked Yang Xinxin.

Yang Xinxin picked up her own notepad and flipped through it, and said, "Uncle Yu, according to the financial statements of the past few months, our monthly sales have exceeded 600 million US dollars now, and we still have money on hand." The cash reserve is 2950 million US dollars. The company currently mainly has two development projects of operating system and office software. If no new projects are launched in the near future, we will have about I can spend 1600 million US dollars. But if it is used to build a research institute, this is not a lot of money, and I don’t know if it is enough.”

"It's almost there. I can personally contribute 1400 million US dollars. We can work together to build an applied technology research institute. We can do some research on operating systems and office software first, and then slowly expand more research directions. "Zhang Lexing thinks that money should not be a problem, it is more important to make their products more competitive.

"One more thing, I hope that after the establishment of the institute, I can do some research on the graphics operating system." Zhang Lexing remembered that there is a very important research direction in the operating system, and the graphics operating system should be developed in seven or eight years. It quickly became popular, especially since Microsoft's Windows95 graphics operating system has completely changed the habit of using computers.Graphical operating system can be said to be a big gold mine in the future, and Zhang Lexing will naturally not give up.

"Graphical operating system? What does it look like?" Yang Xinxin looked confused.

"I heard that Xerox's research institute seems to have studied this." Dr. Yu's situation is much better, after all, he is more knowledgeable.

"That's right, I also heard that Xerox has done this research. Last year they released a set of finished products called Xerox 8010Star. Are you interested in going to the place where I live to see it? It's very interesting." Zhang Lexing is actually from Wo Locke heard about this matter. Of course, he is very interested in knowing the future of the graphics operating system. He immediately asked someone to order a set of TheXeroxStar. He wanted to see how Xerox produced it. He had already studied it when he was resting at home yesterday. One day, it really is very special.

Hearing about this kind of thing, Yang Xinxin and Dr. Yu couldn't sit still anymore, and the three of them skipped work together to go to the place where Zhang Lexing lives to open their eyes.Zhang Lexing's small villa is not too far from the company, only 15 minutes by car. Yang Xinxin is familiar with this place, because she also lives in this house, but Yang Xinxin lives on the second floor and Zhang Lexing lives on the first floor.The reason for this situation is the result of Yang Xinxin's persistence. Her excuse is that Zhang Lexing is still a minor, and no one cares about it. However, Zhang Lexing feels that it is not that simple.

Yang Xinxin's driving skills are good, and the three of them came to a small villa without any problems.The three walked into the downstairs reception room together, where the Xerox 8010Star was placed on a desk.This is a fully integrated computer, the processor is actually from AMD, the memory is relatively large with 384KB (of course, you can expand it to 1.5MB if you want), and it is also equipped with a relatively rare hard disk with a maximum capacity of 40MB In Zhang Lexing's opinion, this hard drive is pitifully small, not as big as the USB flash drive he used, but hard drives are still very fashionable at this time.The computer's main case is relatively large and has rollers, so it can only be placed under the desk. The most prominent part on the case is the 8-inch floppy drive.The most conspicuous thing on the desk is the 17-inch monitor, which is quite large nowadays, especially when compared with an Apple II or a PC.The keyboard is customized by Xerox, but the keys in the middle part are similar. The special part is the mouse on the right side of the keyboard. At this time, few people have seen it, and most people have never even heard of it. Said.

Zhang Lexing came to the table and turned on the power of the computer, and soon the graphical operation interface of 8010Star appeared on the monitor.The special shape and distinctive operation interface quickly aroused the interest of Dr. Yu and Yang Xinxin.Dr. Yu reached out and pressed the keyboard a few times, and found that the interface did not change as he expected, which made him even more surprised.On the other side, student Yang Xiaobai became interested in a square-headed thing next to the keyboard. He reached out to touch it, but unexpectedly found that the arrow on the monitor moved accordingly. After putting it on, there were two buttons on the square with two fingers. Not long after, Yang Xiaobai found that he could use a computer.

"Is this really a computer? I think it's easy to use!" Yang Xinxin, who felt that she had completely shed her identity as a novice, exclaimed happily.

Dr. Yu also saw a lot of things from it, and said with emotion: "This is really much easier to use than that kind of command-line operating system. If VideoBrain (the home computer that Dr. Yu made back then) used this kind of The operating system must have entered thousands of households long ago."

"I was also very touched after reading it. For home users, or many potential computer users, an easy-to-use operating system is very important to them. That kind of command line is very important for software designers and computer users. There is no problem for gamers, but it is still too complicated for ordinary home users and business users. So I was thinking, can our company also produce such an operating system?" Zhang Lexing also said with emotion, but His expressions were more intentional, because he, who had seen a real graphical operating system, couldn't be affected by such a crude interface.

Relying on the shock brought by Xerox 8010Star, the research institute planned by Zhang Lexing was soon established with the help of Yang Xinxin and Dr. Yu, and the first research project of the institute was the graphical operating system.It wasn't until this time that Yang Xinxin and Dr. Yu knew that Zhang Lexing had spent nearly $8010 for the Xerox 8010Star, but this also made them no longer worried about the impact of the Xerox [-]Star.

(End of this chapter)