APPLE MACINTOSH
Apple Computer launched the Macintosh afterwards, the first successful mouse-driven computer with a graphic user interface, with a single $1.5 million commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl. Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Macintosh included many of the Lisa´s features at a much more affordable price: $2,500.
Apple´s commercial played on the theme of George Orwell´s "1984" and featured the destruction of Big Brother with the power of personal computing found in a Macintosh. Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing.
Apple´s commercial played on the theme of George Orwell´s "1984" and featured the destruction of Big Brother with the power of personal computing found in a Macintosh. Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing.
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released on August 24, 1995 and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products. During development, it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
Windows 95 integrated Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its relatively simplified "plug-n-play" features. There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly 16-bit architecture to a pre-emptively multitasked 32-bit architecture.
Accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign, Windows 95 was a major success in the marketplace at launch and shortly became the most popular desktop operating system. It also introduced numerous functions and features that were featured in later Windows versions, such as the taskbar, the 'Start' button, and the way the user navigates. It was also suggested that Windows 95 had an effect of driving other major players (including OS/2) out of business, something which would later be used in court against Microsoft.
Windows 95 integrated Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its relatively simplified "plug-n-play" features. There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly 16-bit architecture to a pre-emptively multitasked 32-bit architecture.
Accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign, Windows 95 was a major success in the marketplace at launch and shortly became the most popular desktop operating system. It also introduced numerous functions and features that were featured in later Windows versions, such as the taskbar, the 'Start' button, and the way the user navigates. It was also suggested that Windows 95 had an effect of driving other major players (including OS/2) out of business, something which would later be used in court against Microsoft.
XEROX STAR
Xerox finally brought a machine based on the PARC technology to market. It was called the Xerox Star, and it was a failure. Technically, it was woefully underpowered, slow, and overpriced. Hesitant and inept marketing did not help matters. Many of the developers, sensing more willingness from Apple and other emerging PC companies to push the technology, had started to bail out of PARC in 1980; the failure of the Star accelerated the process. Xerox, despite having pioneered the GUI and several of the other key technologies of modern computing, never turned a profit from them. In 1981 Xerox introduced the 8010 “Star” Information System, an office automation system. The system was designed for the casual user, and their personal workstations would be connected via Ethernet, sharing printers, and servers, etc. Star used a bitmapped screen, windows, a two-buttoned mouse and icons, which no other computer systems at that time had. This formed the way user interfaces were going to be design in the future. The desktop metaphor was also implemented, meaning that the user deal mostly with data files, and that the corresponding application is associated automatically to that data file. Documents could be placed on the desktop, or be filed, or be placed in the out-basket for e-mailing, etc. You could arrange the icons in the order that you want, just as in real life. To simplify for the user, Star used generic commands, that is a small set of commands that could be applied to all data (Move, Copy, Open, Delete, Show, Properties and Same). In order to control the system, the user manipulated graphical elements on the screen, instead of typing commands as in the traditional computer systems then. The icons made it easier to find the files wanted, and provided a familiar way to sort the documents, either filing them or just piling them on the desktop. Star not only used default options, but it hid the other options, so the users do not have to worry about them. Another important quality was the consistency, that is, everything looked and worked the same way throughout the system. The designers of Star also emphasized the graphical design of the desktop, windows and icons. The illusion of manipulable objects, visual order, WYSIWYG, consistent and appropriate graphic vocabulary and an ambition to “match the medium” were some of the principles that concerned the designer.
APPLE LISA
Before Apple introduced the Macintosh, they produced the Apple Lisa in 1982. Apple introduced its Lisa. The first personal computer with a graphical user interface, its development was central in the move to such systems for personal computers. The Lisa´s sloth and high price ($10,000) led to its ultimate failure.
Apple Lisa Facts:
-Based on the ideas they saw at Xerox
-2nd PC to be sold that used a GUI (Xerox Star was first)
-Lisa was a commercial failure partly due to cost (~USD10,000)
-And partly due to the Macintosh which was released 2 years later
-Apple Lisa ad featuring a future movie star
Apple Lisa Facts:
-Based on the ideas they saw at Xerox
-2nd PC to be sold that used a GUI (Xerox Star was first)
-Lisa was a commercial failure partly due to cost (~USD10,000)
-And partly due to the Macintosh which was released 2 years later
-Apple Lisa ad featuring a future movie star
XEROX Alto
The Xerox Alto was one of the first personal computers (a term that was already coined at the time), a general purpose computer designed for individual use (although not as a home computer). However it was expensive and, unlike modern personal computers, not based on a microprocessor. It was developed at Xerox PARC and released on March 1, 1973.It was the first computer to use a desktop metaphor, first commercialized on the later Xerox Star, and one of the first with a mouse-driven graphical user interface (GUI) after Douglas Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS) and several other innovations in user interfaces of the time.
It was not a commercial product, but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at PARC, other Xerox facilities, and at several universities for many years. The Alto greatly influenced the design of personal computers in the following decades, notably the Apple Macintosh and the first Sun workstations.
It was not a commercial product, but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at PARC, other Xerox facilities, and at several universities for many years. The Alto greatly influenced the design of personal computers in the following decades, notably the Apple Macintosh and the first Sun workstations.