Inventor of the GUI

[Kzin]

This seems to come up regularly so I thought that I would post a source on it (i.e. claims that Steve Jobs invented the Windows system in 1929 or whatever )

http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/foldoc/56/48.htm

Typically Xerox are too feeble even to mention any of this on their web site but it is (or should be) common knowledge.

[CiberTHuG]

Yes, Xerox had a vested interest in WYSIWYG. They were willing to give away the GUI so people would create more documents and print them. As the computer was able to show more fonts and styles, people would demand more sofisticated printers and copiers.

Xerox created the window front end that Apple used. Apparently Xerox just cut funding for the project. I don't know. Anyway, Apple in turn worked with Microsoft (another start up at the time) since Steve Jobs had a thing against the establishment. He wanted to take down Big Blue.

Anyway... he let MS take Windows. There were several things that Apple beat Microsoft on, but lost out in the end.

Steve was so misguided. But, you would have to be to make the Mac.

Anyway... a good movie that follows reality with an acceptable amount of creative liscense and great dramatization is "Pirates of Silicon Valley" with Noah Wyle and Anthony Micheal Hall.

[Kzin]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
Steve was so misguided. But, you would have to be to make the Mac.

The 68000 based Mac was a very nice machine at the time and Jobs' drive and fanaticism helped it to be what it was. However the world has moved on and basically the unique GUI features have been added to just about everything (OS/2, X-Windows, various Linux interfaces like KDE, Gem, Windows etc)

[CiberTHuG]

Well, the Motorola is one of the things that made Apple better than Microsoft. Each generation of the Motorola is faster than the Intel.

But in the end, Microsoft owns Apple.

The biggest problem with the whole Apple/Mac thing is... it is geared toward a niche market to the exclusion of others, with an elitist mentality. It is also a closed system. I can' just swap out the sound card anytime I want to, or overclock it. They only come with one screen. They only have one button on the mouse.

[parksie]

Don't forget they have no command line.

And in-between Macs and PCs sits RISC OS. Considering that this came out when Macs were still on System 6 & no multi-tasking, it kicked arse.

[Kzin]

Originally posted by parksie
Don't forget they have no command line.

And in-between Macs and PCs sits RISC OS. Considering that this came out when Macs were still on System 6 & no multi-tasking, it kicked arse.

Did you know there was a UNIX A4000 too! Pity they were not all UNIX!

[CiberTHuG]

Unix has been around for a long while. Well, in computer terms. It is older than Apple or Microsoft.

But... does anyone know when X (X Windows) came about?

[parksie]

Originally posted by Kzin
Did you know there was a UNIX A4000 too! Pity they were not all UNIX!

Oi Don't knock RISC OS...I like it! You can also get FreeBSD and Linux (among others) for most Acorn computers. I could even run Linux on my ancient A310 if I wanted

[Mark Sreeves]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
Unix has been around for a long while. Well, in computer terms. It is older than Apple or Microsoft.

But... does anyone know when X (X Windows) came about?

I'll have to look that one up in my Uni notes.
Doesn't the X stand for Xerox?

Unix was written by Ken Thomson back in the darkages


this makes interesting reading:
Funny how old Billy boy isn't mentioned

http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...tory/Pioneers/

myaybe because M$ are imitators not pioneers...

[Kzin]

Originally posted by parksie
Oi Don't knock RISC OS...I like it! You can also get FreeBSD and Linux (among others) for most Acorn computers. I could even run Linux on my ancient A310 if I wanted

Well - if Acorn shipped Unix on the Archimedes then British schools would have turned out a generation of Unix wizards rather than a generation of people who never see the OS that they learned on again after school

Mind you Hermann Hauser says that he is trying to position RISC machines as the embedded mobile processor so if you are enough of a wizard there it might help!

Originally posted by parksie
I could even run Linux on my ancient A310 if I wanted

An A310 how old were you when you got that?

[parksie]

I think we got it when I was 7 or 8

I don't particularly miss it now, although I miss a couple of apps on it though -- Draw and Impression especially

[Kzin]

Originally posted by parksie
I think we got it when I was 7 or 8

I don't particularly miss it now, although I miss a couple of apps on it though -- Draw and Impression especially

That figures - combined with your Linux responses I'm off to vote for you now

[parksie]

Hehe...my campaign seems to be working