41 Years of the Xerox Alto

[7bit]

What would be 30 Years of Apple Mac without this ^^^ ?

[jdcarpe]

What would be 30 Years of Apple Mac without this ^^^ ?

Lisa?


This is why Jobs claiming Gates stole his idea (Mac OS) to make Windows was silly. Jobs stole it from Xerox PARC!

[Muirium]

Is today the Alto's birthday?

Anyway, here's the classic argument:

"You're ripping us off!", Steve shouted, raising his voice even higher. "I trusted you, and now you're stealing from us!"

But Bill Gates just stood there coolly, looking Steve directly in the eye, before starting to speak in his squeaky voice.

"Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?pr ... _Xerox.txt

A lot of the people working on the Lisa and the Mac came straight over from Xerox Parc. Larry Tesler was one of them, and he wound up in charge of the Lisa project. Also bear in mind that Steve's famous trip to Parc to see the Alto in action was part of a deal with Xerox management. Apple paid them with tasty pre-IPO AAPL stock.

Microsoft though, yeah, they snuck in to snatch the TV.

[7bit]

Birthday: 1 March 1973.


ps: Windows is a mixup of CP/M, QDOS, OS/2, VMS and MBS.

[Muirium]

With a lot of NeXTSTEP imitation thrown in. Especially back in the Windows 95 days. All those fake 3D grey buttons!

[7bit]

Sorry, but I'm using a NeXTSTEP clone (Window Maker) and can assure you Windows has absolutely nothing in common with it!


Please compare:

<-- <-- :lame:

BTW: The curvy space bar looks like MICRO switches where used.

[Muirium]

You know what they say about imitation: it's the sincerest form of flattery. Unless Microsoft does it. Then it's more like a big fat stubbly drunk guy dressing up like your girlfriend…

[mr_a500]

A lot of the people working on the Lisa and the Mac came straight over from Xerox Parc.

Yes. I noticed when researching other early GUIs, they were all either started by ex-Xerox employees or heavily influenced by the Alto.

GSX - later to become GEM, started by ex-Xerox employee Lee Jay Lorenzen
Metaphor Computer Systems - started by ex-Xerox employees David Liddle and Donald Massaro


(Metaphor Computer - who knew this thing even existed?)

People often forget (especially with all the revisionist computer history out there) that employees moved around a lot between companies and many times it wasn't the company itself responsible for great things, but the employees they managed to get. Ex-Atari employess made the Commodore Amiga. Ex-Apple employees started BeOS. Ex-Texas Instruments employees started Compaq. Ex-Motorola employee started MOS. Ex-CDC employee started Cray... and so on.

[Muirium]

Didn't Commodore buy Amiga (then a separate company) fairly late in development?

Anyway, you're quite right. Especially about the Metaphor, which I've not heard of either but has a pretty apt name and decent design. (Although I doubt it's really as wireless as the publicity shot suggests!) But now I'm eyeing up that Kishsaver-like keyboard…

[matt3o]

Didn't Commodore buy Amiga (then a separate company) fairly late in development?

Sure! it was Amiga Corp. that actually received money from Atari itself (Amiga is a son of a former Atari employee)... in fact commodore had to pay Atari too... but the Amiga PC came out when the company was already acquired and part of commodore.

[mr_a500]

Sure! it was Amiga Corp. that actually received money from Atari itself (Amiga is a son of a former Atari employee)... in fact commodore had to pay Atari too... but the Amiga PC came out when the company was already acquired and part of commodore.

"Amiga PC"? I know just about everything there is to know about Amiga history, but I've never heard of an "Amiga PC". There was the Commodore PC (5-60), but no "Amiga PC".

[matt3o]

I mean the Amiga Computer (not the company), c'mon (it was marketed as a general purpose home computer, hence PC, at the beginning)

[mr_a500]

OK, I knew what you meant - I just hate that term being used for non-"IBM PC & clone"-type computers. (..yes, I'm petty..) IBM stole the term "personal computer" just like Microsoft stole the word "windows". (and ruined the name "Bob")

Actually, it was marketed as a "microcomputer", like most home computers back then. That's what it says in the manual anyway.

I've got about 34 computers, but only 2 are PCs.

[Muirium]

What about your MacBook Pro: it can run Windows natively, but it's also a Mac!

Hint: let it go. I liked the old nomenclature you'd find on game packaging in the DOS days: "IBM PC or 100% compatible". It's IBM's PC. Nothing special. Just often cloned.

[mr_a500]

I'm not bothered when it's used for an Intel Mac. It mostly disturbs me when used for pre-90's computers. (the non-PC ones)

[mr_a500]

Anyway, you're quite right. Especially about the Metaphor, which I've not heard of either but has a pretty apt name and decent design. (Although I doubt it's really as wireless as the publicity shot suggests!) But now I'm eyeing up that Kishsaver-like keyboard…

The missing cords are not just for the publicity shot. It actually was wireless.


http://spot.pcc.edu/~mtrigobo/personal/metaphor.html

Notice the black IR windows on the keyboard and mouse. I still don't know when this thing was released - or if anybody bought one. From the design, it looks very post-1984 (possibly in the brief period of time when an IR keyboard seemed a neat idea.. but before the PCjr showed just how crappy it could be). Development apparently started in 1982, so an 84/85 release seems probable.

The monitor from the side reminds me of the NeXT monitor. The GUI colour scheme also reminds me of NeXT:


(although the NeXT was originally B&W so I don't know why I say that... but if that was B&W, it would look similar)

[7bit]

I can see it says "Folder" instead of "Directory".

[Muirium]

I think it's got to be a later system. The monitor looks too NeXTy (and quite like the late 80s Apple "Jaguar" concept) and the resolution looks nice and high. Plus colour! Very fancy. Either a fine futuristic demo or a product of the end of the 80s perhaps.

The Mac took from 1979 to 1984 in development. it was originally going to look like an Osborne 1 (before anyone ha seen that CRT lid luggable) run on the Apple II processor, and cost under $1000. In 1981 or 1982! But feature creep really took over and fortunately so. The original Mac vision wound up leaving Apple with Jef Raskin and shipping as the Canon Cat. An interesting computer but not a game changing one.

[mr_a500]

Anybody ever heard of the Xerox NoteTaker?



Notice the mouse. It was supposed to run the same OS as the Alto. It was never released, but around 10 prototypes were made - in 1978!

Apparently it influenced the design of the (non-GUI) Osborne 1. (..which then influenced the Kaypro II)

Man, those guys at Xerox Parc really had vision. They certainly deserve more recognition.