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Xerox Alto Computer 30th Anniversary

Posted by michael on from the back-in-the-day dept.

aheath writes "The New York Times has a story about the 30th anniversary of the Xerox Alto computer: How Digital Pioneers Put the 'Personal' in PC's. According to the PARC Factsheet "The Alto Computer (1973/1980) included the Graphical User Interface (GUI), WYSIWYG editing, bit-mapped display, overlapping windows, and the first commercial use of the mouse." The concepts prototyped in the Xerox Alto contributed to the development of the Xerox Star, the Apple Lisa, the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows 1.0."

7 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. And for some reason...... by mao+che+minh · · Score: 3, Funny
    vi, a text editor that was developed on the Xerox Alto platform, has yet to make any progress since.

    *ducks*

  2. Windows 1.0 by wordisms · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just like the screen shot of the "mouse with steel ball" and more notoriously, "the reboot screen after a crash." Somethings never change.

  3. Just think... by Neck_of_the_Woods · · Score: 5, Funny


    If you had a 1024 node cluster of these things you could load windowsXP in just under 3 months.

    --
    Neck_of_the_Woods
    #/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
  4. Jargon file by arvindn · · Score: 4, Funny
    The jargon file has an interesting entry on the Xerox PARC.

    It says

    Sadly, the prophets at PARC were without honor in their own company, so much so that it became a standard joke to describe PARC as a place that specialized in developing brilliant ideas for everyone else.

  5. Troll ! by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 4, Funny
    jjjjjjjjj kjjj
    vi is simple, powerfull and easy to use.
    oo
    vi is simple, powerfull and easy to use.
    :w
    q:q
    :wq!
    :wq

  6. WYSIWYG by trentfoley · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the early 1980's, I worked for a software spin-off of an engineering company that was going down the tubes rapidly. One Friday I went to work to find:
    1) A very polite policeman at the door.
    2) No electricity.
    3) No management people.
    4) Confused employees.
    5) An envelope at my desk with a check for 1/2 of my pay.
    6) On the memo line, it read: "WYSIWYG"
    7...
    8) no profit.

  7. Re:Debunking the "Apple Ripped Off Xerox PARC" Myt by Krapangor · · Score: 2, Funny
    Most importantly, Apple paid Xerox millions in stock to incorporate the GUI elements it did borrow for the Lisa/Macintosh projects.

    But this proves indeed that they were ripped off.

    --
    Owner of a Mensa membership card.