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A Non-Dogmatic History of the GUI

Posted by timothy on from the catmatic-is-better-anyhow dept.

Zoxed writes "Jeremy Reimer provides an 8-page history of GUIs from the early 1930s to the present day. For example, from the conclusion: 'the truth of the story is that the GUI was developed by many different people over a long period of time. Saying that "Apple invented the GUI" or "Apple ripped off the idea from PARC" is overly simplistic, but saying that "Xerox invented the GUI" is equally so.'"

2 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. A link is worth a thousand pictures. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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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  2. Re:Love of the Mouse by iamlucky13 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Sphere desktop environment probably isn't quite what you're looking for, but I think it's neat. It's really more of a toy than a tool.

    It's basically a program that replaces the standard desktop in XP with a spherical one. Your vision is at the center of the sphere, and you can look 360 deg, including up and down and place windows throughout the entire environment. You can also get some rather dizzying backgrounds for it.