This year marks the 45th anniversary of the release of the Xerox Star 8010 computer. This device, born in 1981, was not only the world’s first commercial computer equipped with a graphical user interface (GUI), but also established the desktop logic that is still used today. It can be called the cyber ancestor of modern computers. The full name of Xerox Star is Xerox 8010 Information System, which was born at Xerox's legendary Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
It realizes the leap from character interface to graphical interface, and introduces the window, icon, menu and pointer (WIMP) operating mode for the first time. Users do not need to learn complex codes and can complete instructions through mouse clicks. This design greatly reduces the threshold for computer use.
The Xerox Star has a built-in Ethernet network interface that can connect to a 12 pages per minute laser printer, which was very forward-looking at the time. The mouse, hand-controlled pointer and other devices it used became the standard configuration of subsequent personal computers.
In terms of hardware configuration, it is equipped with AMD AM2900 series processor, equipped with 384KB memory (expandable to 1.5MB), supports up to 40MB hard drive, and a 17-inch display with a resolution of 1024×808. These indicators far exceed that of the IBM PC 5150, a product of the same period.
The graphical interface of Xerox Star is not a direct copy of the research version of PARC, but was redesigned by the Xerox System Development Department under the leadership of David Canfield Smith. Smith created the concept of desktop metaphors and icons, and inspired by the manila folders that were ubiquitous in offices, he designed the first folder icon in computer history, which is still used today.
Despite its leading technology, the price of Xerox Star was as high as US$16,595, which is equivalent to about 120,000 yuan at the current exchange rate. As a result, Xerox spent huge R&D costs, but still failed to achieve ideal sales.
But its technical value was discovered by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In 1979, Jobs got the opportunity to visit Xerox PARC. When he returned, he gave birth to the Apple Lisa and later the Macintosh. Later, Bill Gates also got inspiration from these technologies and later developed the Windows operating system.
In a widely circulated allusion, Bill Gates once confessed to Steve Jobs that both of them were eyeing Xerox, their "rich neighbor", and said that they wanted to steal a TV, but found that Jobs had already done it.
In December 1989, Xerox sued Apple's Mac and Lisa systems for plagiarizing its GUI design, claiming more than $150 million, which was eventually rejected by the court. In 2010, Xerox sued Apple again, but the case dragged on for too long and was still dismissed.
Although Xerox had the original achievement of GUI, it failed to obtain any commercial returns from it, becoming a classic case in the history of science and technology of "getting up early and finishing late".
In the words of David Liddell, head of the Star design team: This machine is better than most products after it. It took Mac ten years to catch up, and Windows took almost fifteen years.
