Xerox Alto Computer 30th Anniversary

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."

And for some reason......

[mao che minh]

vi, a text editor that was developed on the Xerox Alto platform, has yet to make any progress since.

*ducks*

Windows 1.0

[wordisms]

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

Just think...

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

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

Jargon file

[arvindn]

The jargon file has an interesting entry [catb.org] 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.

Troll !

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

jjjjjjjjj kjjj
vi is simple, powerfull and easy to use.
oo
vi is simple, powerfull and easy to use.
:w
q:q
:wq!
:wq

WYSIWYG

[trentfoley]

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.

Re:Debunking the "Apple Ripped Off Xerox PARC" Myt

[Krapangor]

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.