Timeline

Timeline of GUI Achievements

"Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to describe the history of the computer industry for the past decade as a massive effort to keep up with Apple."-Byte Magazine 1994

1962

- Sketchpad is developed at MIT by Ivan Sutherland.

1964

- The first mouse-like pointing device is created by Douglas Engelbart at SRI International, and further developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.

1969

- Alan Kay develops the concept of GUI in his dissertation research at the University of Utah. The GUI concept is realized in his later work at Xerox PARC.

1973

- The Alto, the first computer to have a modern graphical user interface, is born at Xerox PARC.
- Dick Shoup's "Superpaint" frame buffer application stores it's first video image. Although most of Xerox PARC's GUI research was on grayscale displays, Superpaint helped lead the way to color GUIs.

1977

- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple computer. The Apple II personal computer does not have a GUI, but uses bitmapped raster graphics.
- The Alto personal computer and it's graphical user interface are presented to the Xerox sales force during "Futures Day" at the Xerox World Conference. The laser printer and computer networking are also introduced.
- The first portable personal computer, the Xerox Notetaker, is introduced along with the Dorado.

Ivan Sutherland with Sketchpad

Douglas Engelbart

Alan Kay

Xerox Alto

Wozniak and Jobs with first Apple computer

1979

- Steve Jobs and engineers from Apple visit Xerox PARC. They would later incorporate much of what they saw into the design of the Lisa and Macintosh.

1980

- first commercial distribution of the GUI in the Xerox STAR which introduced pointing and selection with the mouse.
-IBM introduces it's PC running DOS, a non-graphical, command line operating system. The IBM PC would later be the main platform for Microsoft Windows.

Xerox Star

1984

- the GUI is popularized by Apple computer with the Lisa and Macintosh.
- the Macintosh becomes the first successful mass-marketed personal computer with a GUI.

Apple Lisa

1985

- Microsoft Windows 1.0 is developed for use on IBM PCs, does not become popular until version 3.1

Microsoft Windows 1.0

1987

- X Windows System for Unix Workstations becomes widely available.
- IBM's Presentation Manager is released, which is intended to be a graphics operating system replacement for DOS.

1988

- Steve Job's new company NeXT develops NeXTStep, a GUI for it's Unix based computers. This becomes the first to simulate a three-dimensional screen. Later when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, NeXTStep would merge with the Mac OS to create Mac OS X.

NEXT OS

1989

- Several Unix-based GUIs are introduced. These include Open Look, by AT&T and Sun Microsystems, and Motif for the Open Software Foundation by DEC and Hewlett-Packard. Motif's appearance is based on IBM's Presentation Manager.
- Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 developed jointly with IBM to become an interim step to OS/2.

Microsoft Windows 3.0

1992

- OS/2 Workplace is released by IBM.
- Microsoft releases Windows 3.1.

Microsoft Windows 3.1

1995

- Microsoft releases Windows 95 which challenges IBM's OS/2 concept and plans.
- Windows NT replaces Windows 3.1 for Workgroups, a better networked, more professional version of Windows 95.

Microsoft Windows 95

1996

- NeXT develops OpenStep an improved version of the NeXTStep GUI.

OpenStep

1998

- Windows 98 is released which later becomes Windows Me (Millennium Edition) in 2000.
- the iMac coupled with OS 8.5 gives the consumer market a more user friendly computer, with easy access to the internet.
- other GUI-based operating systems are developed such as the BE OS that is cross-platform, and operating systems for small PDA computers such as Windows CE, the Palm OS, Apple Newton, and others.

Microsoft Windows 98

Timeline Courtesy of Ohio State University