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I wish we had something like Lotus Jazz on Mac OS X.

Jazz was the best integrated suite I'd ever used. Required a 512k Mac in 1985, used every bit of RAM and processor power, and it shined.

Hell, if Lotus was still making great software, maybe we would - but we all know what happened to them.

As I recall, Apple didn't even invented the GUI or even where the first to release a computer with WYSIWYG.

The 3.5" drive where developed by sony 1980.

GUI screenshots.
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interface s

Englebart's famous 1968 demo.
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

Acorn Archimedes GUI
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~lrtc/computers/acorn_ro/ acorn/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A225785

Knowledge Navigator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_navigator

Apple II GS
http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/computers/IIg s.html

BeBox
http://www.bebox.nu/history.php

8-1/2: The Plan 9 Window system
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/8%BD/8%BD.pdf

Genera
http://www.geocities.com/mparker762/toys.html

Video Interviews of Early Pioneers
http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/

GUI News
http://interfacelift.com/news/

ZUI's
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo/applications/in dex.shtml

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To me, it comes down to this: many companies have good ideas and make decent goes at good OS, hardware, and software. Apple makes excelent products. This appears to be the difference between what Xerox had and what Apple had in the 80s. Even you example talks about using a key and not a click (they had three buttons, what were they for?)

Even now, Apple has far less mixed metaphors (i.e. closing a window kills the app). Even on XP. Asside from clicking on "start" to shut down, if you have acrobat open as a app and in a browser window (in Moz at least), if you close the last app window, it kills the browser pdf at the same time. And this is what sets them appart. Their products are not just a group of good ideas--they are excelent intigrated systems.

Anyway, the article you point out speaks past the points in the one I linked to--they were wroking at the same time, now one after the other.

Geez, I can't believe I'm linking to this article again: "The Star user interface: an overview". From that article:

You can "open" an icon by selecting it and pushing the OPEN key on the keyboard. When opened, an icon expands into a larger form called a window, which displays the icon's contents... To file a document, you move it to a picture of a file drawer, just as you take a piece of paper to a physical filing cabinet. To print a document, you move it to a picture of a printer, just as you take a piece of paper to a copying machine.

The article conveniently does not mention the Xerox Star, which was announced in March 1981. The Apple lisa was announced in January 1983.

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

You mean nouns like document, folder, file drawer, in/out baskets, printer, and floppy disk?

Those icons are from the Xerox Star, announced in April 1981. See "The Star user interface: an overview".

Did you think Apple innovated noun-based icons with the Lisa in 1983?

Why are you so sure about Microsoft copying the desktop metaphor from Apple when the Xerox Star used the office/desktop metaphor in 1981?

From the 1982 article "The Star user interace: an overview":

Every user's initial view of Star is the Desktop, which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents a working environment, where current projects and accessible resources reside. On the screen (Figure 3) are displayed pictures of familiar office objects, such as documents, folders, file drawers, in-baskets, and out-baskets. These objects are displayed as small pictures, or icons.

This feature was added to NeXT STEP in 1990! Microsoft Windows was at version 3.0 at the time.

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/timelines

Sine OS X is really OpenStep in Mac OS X clothing, all Cocoa applications get on the fly spell check for free.

You could try looking at these articles read all of them and you will see that the how process was iterative and dynamic it fed of previous work and innovated. It is worth noting that the developers never denied that they learnt from previous research. It is strange that some how the fact that every influence on a technology is not printed on the front of the box is some how seen as denying history, when actually its absence has more to expediency.

so here are the urls
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/inventingthelisauserinterface

Note how modern the screen-shot at the top of the article looks, and also the columns like interface that was prototyped about 2/3 way down.

also see here about new features introduced by the lisa later used on the macintosh

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelegacyofthelisa

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelisauserinterface

on on the star (influence is obvious but that in no way takes away from the apple development teams achievements)

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thexeroxaltocomputer

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/designingthestaruserinterface

Also worth investigating is the development of a mass produceable mouse for the original mac (was on slashdot quite a wile ago not sure how long but may be over 2 years ago). It demonstrates that just because a mouse as a prototype exists making it into a usable commodity device involves quite a bit of invention and originality of thought.

Worth considering before you say people stole a concept.

You could try looking at these articles read all of them and you will see that the how process was iterative and dynamic it fed of previous work and innovated. It is worth noting that the developers never denied that they learnt from previous research. It is strange that some how the fact that every influence on a technology is not printed on the front of the box is some how seen as denying history, when actually its absence has more to expediency.

so here are the urls
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/inventingthelisauserinterface

Note how modern the screen-shot at the top of the article looks, and also the columns like interface that was prototyped about 2/3 way down.

also see here about new features introduced by the lisa later used on the macintosh

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelegacyofthelisa

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelisauserinterface

on on the star (influence is obvious but that in no way takes away from the apple development teams achievements)

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thexeroxaltocomputer

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/designingthestaruserinterface

Also worth investigating is the development of a mass produceable mouse for the original mac (was on slashdot quite a wile ago not sure how long but may be over 2 years ago). It demonstrates that just because a mouse as a prototype exists making it into a usable commodity device involves quite a bit of invention and originality of thought.

Worth considering before you say people stole a concept.

You could try looking at these articles read all of them and you will see that the how process was iterative and dynamic it fed of previous work and innovated. It is worth noting that the developers never denied that they learnt from previous research. It is strange that some how the fact that every influence on a technology is not printed on the front of the box is some how seen as denying history, when actually its absence has more to expediency.

so here are the urls
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/inventingthelisauserinterface

Note how modern the screen-shot at the top of the article looks, and also the columns like interface that was prototyped about 2/3 way down.

also see here about new features introduced by the lisa later used on the macintosh

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelegacyofthelisa

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelisauserinterface

on on the star (influence is obvious but that in no way takes away from the apple development teams achievements)

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thexeroxaltocomputer

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/designingthestaruserinterface

Also worth investigating is the development of a mass produceable mouse for the original mac (was on slashdot quite a wile ago not sure how long but may be over 2 years ago). It demonstrates that just because a mouse as a prototype exists making it into a usable commodity device involves quite a bit of invention and originality of thought.

Worth considering before you say people stole a concept.

You could try looking at these articles read all of them and you will see that the how process was iterative and dynamic it fed of previous work and innovated. It is worth noting that the developers never denied that they learnt from previous research. It is strange that some how the fact that every influence on a technology is not printed on the front of the box is some how seen as denying history, when actually its absence has more to expediency.

so here are the urls
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/inventingthelisauserinterface

Note how modern the screen-shot at the top of the article looks, and also the columns like interface that was prototyped about 2/3 way down.

also see here about new features introduced by the lisa later used on the macintosh

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelegacyofthelisa

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelisauserinterface

on on the star (influence is obvious but that in no way takes away from the apple development teams achievements)

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thexeroxaltocomputer

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/designingthestaruserinterface

Also worth investigating is the development of a mass produceable mouse for the original mac (was on slashdot quite a wile ago not sure how long but may be over 2 years ago). It demonstrates that just because a mouse as a prototype exists making it into a usable commodity device involves quite a bit of invention and originality of thought.

Worth considering before you say people stole a concept.

You could try looking at these articles read all of them and you will see that the how process was iterative and dynamic it fed of previous work and innovated. It is worth noting that the developers never denied that they learnt from previous research. It is strange that some how the fact that every influence on a technology is not printed on the front of the box is some how seen as denying history, when actually its absence has more to expediency.

so here are the urls
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/inventingthelisauserinterface

Note how modern the screen-shot at the top of the article looks, and also the columns like interface that was prototyped about 2/3 way down.

also see here about new features introduced by the lisa later used on the macintosh

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelegacyofthelisa

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thelisauserinterface

on on the star (influence is obvious but that in no way takes away from the apple development teams achievements)

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/thexeroxaltocomputer

http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/ historical/designingthestaruserinterface

Also worth investigating is the development of a mass produceable mouse for the original mac (was on slashdot quite a wile ago not sure how long but may be over 2 years ago). It demonstrates that just because a mouse as a prototype exists making it into a usable commodity device involves quite a bit of invention and originality of thought.

Worth considering before you say people stole a concept.

Anywho, I'm not surprised how the first feature they pimped was Lotus 1-2-3 support, as Lotus 1-2-3 was the "killer app" of the day. In fact, there are bugs in Excel that were put their purposely to allow for true Lotus 1-2-3 integration.

A whole bunch of file dialogs from different OS are here. Panther's looks kind of similar to the current GNOME one - the old GTK dialog looks like the older MacOS style.

Here's a link to some Longhorn screenshots, for those that have not seen it.

Xerox Star was announced in 1981. Apple Lisa was announced in 1983. From "The Star user interface: an overview" (1982):

Every user's initial view of Star is the Desktop, which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents a working environment, where current projects and accessible resources reside.

Figure 5 from "Designing the Star User Interface" (Byte, 1982) looks like WYSIWYG publishing to me. From that article:

"What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) refers to the situation in which the display screen portrays an accurate rendition of the printed page .... WYSIWYG is a simplifying technique for document-creation systems. All composition is done on the screen .... Figure 5: A Star document showing multicolumn text, graphics, and formulas. This is the way the document appears on the screen. It is also the way it will print (at higher resolution, of course).

Psion 3 was released in 1991. The Newton was released in 1993. I think the Psion 3 qualifies as a PDA since it included an application (AGENDA) that had a Calendar, diary, anniversaries, 100 todo lists, alarms and organiser.

Xerox Star was announced in 1981. Apple Lisa was announced in 1983. From "The Star user interface: an overview" (1982):

Every user's initial view of Star is the Desktop, which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents a working environment, where current projects and accessible resources reside.

Figure 5 from "Designing the Star User Interface" (Byte, 1982) looks like WYSIWYG publishing to me. From that article:

"What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) refers to the situation in which the display screen portrays an accurate rendition of the printed page .... WYSIWYG is a simplifying technique for document-creation systems. All composition is done on the screen .... Figure 5: A Star document showing multicolumn text, graphics, and formulas. This is the way the document appears on the screen. It is also the way it will print (at higher resolution, of course).

Psion 3 was released in 1991. The Newton was released in 1993. I think the Psion 3 qualifies as a PDA since it included an application (AGENDA) that had a Calendar, diary, anniversaries, 100 todo lists, alarms and organiser.

Xerox Star was announced in 1981. Apple Lisa was announced in 1983. From "The Star user interface: an overview" (1982):

Every user's initial view of Star is the Desktop, which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents a working environment, where current projects and accessible resources reside.

Figure 5 from "Designing the Star User Interface" (Byte, 1982) looks like WYSIWYG publishing to me. From that article:

"What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) refers to the situation in which the display screen portrays an accurate rendition of the printed page .... WYSIWYG is a simplifying technique for document-creation systems. All composition is done on the screen .... Figure 5: A Star document showing multicolumn text, graphics, and formulas. This is the way the document appears on the screen. It is also the way it will print (at higher resolution, of course).

Psion 3 was released in 1991. The Newton was released in 1993. I think the Psion 3 qualifies as a PDA since it included an application (AGENDA) that had a Calendar, diary, anniversaries, 100 todo lists, alarms and organiser.

The Xerox Star was announced in April 1981. The Apple Lisa was announced in January 1983. From "The Star user interface: an overview" (1982):

Every user's initial view of Star is the Desktop, which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents a working environment, where current projects and accessible resources reside. On the screen (Figure 3) are displayed pictures of familiar office objects, such as documents, folders, file drawers, in-baskets, and out-baskets. These objects are displayed as small pictures, or icons.

Psion 3 was a digital assistant (including Calendar, diary, anniversaries, 100 todo lists, alarms and organiser) and was released in 1991. The Newton was released in 1993.

The poster was listing technologies, not that apple had invented outright, but that apple had taken a base inspiration and created a market defining product.

The poster was disagreeing to a post that said:

Apple is not known for doing things 'radically new', but more for 'Taking a good concept/idea that no-one managed to implement in a useful way, and then doing it right'

The original Macintosh was a work of art. Both the hardware and firmware/software were optimized as well as possible. Read the interview, it's quite interesting.

BYTE Macintosh Preview.
BYTE Macintosh Team Interview.

I have a collection of most 68000 compact macs and play with them every now and then, they're quite fascinating little machines. I can feel the amount of bloat between every release. System 1.0 boots in 2-3 seconds from a floppy! (System 7 takes about a minute from a hard disk on the same hardware). Some of the difference is of course due to the few features but mostly it's the difference between compiled C and hand-tuned ASM.

"It's better to be a pirate than join the navy" -Steve Jobs

The original Macintosh was a work of art. Both the hardware and firmware/software were optimized as well as possible. Read the interview, it's quite interesting.

BYTE Macintosh Preview.
BYTE Macintosh Team Interview.

I have a collection of most 68000 compact macs and play with them every now and then, they're quite fascinating little machines. I can feel the amount of bloat between every release. System 1.0 boots in 2-3 seconds from a floppy! (System 7 takes about a minute from a hard disk on the same hardware). Some of the difference is of course due to the few features but mostly it's the difference between compiled C and hand-tuned ASM.

"It's better to be a pirate than join the navy" -Steve Jobs

• IBM introduced the fantastic new "VGA" graphics standard, blowing everyone away with its 256 colours of fury.
• Windows 2.0 came out.

Surely you'll concede that QNX 2 is superior to Windows 2?

What about the forgotten windows?

Or the other one. (Apple II Version)

W

I'd say somewhere around Windows 1.0.

Eep! Windows 3.1 was the first Windows to offer any kind of support for sound cards and stuff. Here's a trip down the memory lane.

And just look at the GUI back then and compare to the newer ones. Back then, they really could concentrate on What Mattered!