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Xerox Star User Interface (1982) 1 of 2

VintageCG · 337.2K views · 2009-08-28 · 8:42

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Overview

A demonstration of the 1982 Xerox Star user interface, including its desktop, icons, documents, networking and printing. The uploader argues that Apple's later Lisa and Mac interfaces evolved from these ideas rather than copying them.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as a look at an early GUI that did a lot with little learning curve, often to contrast it with modern software.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2011–2024

Topics

GUI, HCI & interface historyHistory of computing
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xerox stargui historyuser interface1980sxerox parc

What people said

thought_alarm · 2011-04 · Recommendation

There are a few demos of the Xerox Star floating around on YouTube. Seeing it in action gives you a much more complete picture of the system. [VIDEO] The "look" was obviously hugely influential, the "feel" not so much. It is quite an odd beast, as the mouse is actually only used for selecting objects. The Lisa GUI prototypes are also and interesting bit of GUI trivia. It's easy to see the Star's influence on the final shipping version of the Lisa GUI compared to its prototypes. [LINK]

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aresant · 2024-11 · Reference

FYI if interested in visuals for the earlier system OS System .85! - [LINK] (December 4, 1983) System 1 - [LINK] System 2 - [LINK] System 3 - [LINK] System 4 - [LINK] System 5 - [LINK] System 6 - [LINK] (April 1988) Bonus round - Xerox Star UX (1982) - [VIDEO]

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GeekyBear · 2022-10 · Reference

> How did IBM and Apple take over and Xerox end up as a has-been also ran? They were too far ahead of their time. The component costs needed to come down first. In 1981, the "starter kit" for their office system consisted of one Xerox Star for a user, a second Star to act as a file and print server, and a laser printer for about a quarter of a million dollars in today's money. Each additional networked Star that you added was about $50,000 in today's money. Even at those prices, the system wasn't exactly snappy. I do wonder what would have happened if they had kept iterating on the product until faster, cheaper components arrived. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by VintageCG, played through YouTube.

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