Is this true?

muskdialmuskdial
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hello



This article was in our local newspaper the Muskogee Phoenix

which was a generally positive article on Apple:



http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/...03/1024/NEWS17



There is one sentence which I was wondering about it's validity:



"Since Apple stole the graphical user interface from Xerox in the early 1980s and applied it to the Mac?s grandma, the Lisa computer, people have generally interacted with their computers in much the same way."



Thanks

Scott E Pace MD

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    thinkingdifferentthinkingdifferent Posts: 1,604member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by muskdial

    There is one sentence which I was wondering about it's validity:



    "Since Apple stole the graphical user interface from Xerox in the early 1980s and applied it to the Mac?s grandma, the Lisa computer, people have generally interacted with their computers in much the same way."



    Thanks

    Scott E Pace MD



    Define stole? It's no secret that Jobs and crew visited Parc and saw their GUI.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    blackbird_1.0blackbird_1.0 Posts: 724member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThinkingDifferent

    Define stole? It's no secret that Jobs and crew visited Parc and saw their GUI.



    It was my understanding that they paid licensing fees to Xerox/PARC for things they used, and improved greatly upon it.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    grad studentgrad student Posts: 184member
    xerox came up with quite a bit, apple came up with quite a bit more. as far as i remember, apple invented: scroll bars, pull down menu's, tons of direct manipulation with mouse, and hired a lot of the xerox engineers who came up with the gui in the first place. however, it is important to remember that the computer industry is a dynamic environment where ideas are exchanged and improved upon all the time.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    blackbird_1.0blackbird_1.0 Posts: 724member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by grad student

    xerox came up with quite a bit, apple came up with quite a bit more. as far as i remember, apple invented: scroll bars, pull down menu's, tons of direct manipulation with mouse, and hired a lot of the xerox engineers who came up with the gui in the first place. however, it is important to remember that the computer industry is a dynamic environment where ideas are exchanged and improved upon all the time.



    I agree.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Xerox PARC is generally considered to be the source and start of a lot of user interface things we take for granted today. As to how Apple licensed/ stole/ borrowed/ etc. that point I don't know.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    crazychestercrazychester Posts: 1,339member
    This Wikipedia entry sums up what happened pretty well.



    Quote:

    The first successful commercial GUI product was the Apple Macintosh, which was heavily inspired by PARC's work; Xerox was given Apple stock in exchange for engineer visits and an understanding that Apple would create a GUI product. (Much later, in the midst of the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit in which Apple accused Microsoft of violating its copyright by appropriating the use of the "look and feel" of the Macintosh GUI, Xerox also sued Apple on the same grounds. The lawsuit was dismissed on a technicality -- Xerox had waited too long to file suit and the statute of limitations had expired. However, some dispute the degree to which the Apple interface was dervied from Xerox designs.



    As the last line indicates, this has been a constant source of dispute (including within the Mac community). Did Apple steal it or not? The fact Xerox showed it to them should tell you something. Computers aren't the machines that spring to mind when the name Xerox is mentioned.



    They had it (and more besides) but couldn't see the relevance of it.



    Have visionary, will travel.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Well, the PARC part of Xerox PARC is "Palo Alto Research Center". We know Xerox's commercial end of things but remember PARC was a heavy research & development place. Yeah, it takes a visionary of some sorts to look at the experimental stuff and go, OMFG we can really put this to work commercially...!
  • Reply 8 of 10
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Douglas Engelbart's original 1968 demo of a mouse and GUI is online in a few places.



    Judge for yourself who 'started' it. (Also demo'd that day... Hypertext).



    As for who got to market with a viable product first... that would be Apple. Lisa failed, Macintosh succeeded.



    Xerox PARC had had 16 years since their early mouse demo... no viable product.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by blackbird_1.0

    It was my understanding that they paid licensing fees to Xerox/PARC for things they used, and improved greatly upon it.



    Whereas... Gates actually was given a prototype Mac by Steve... and reverse engineered the OS...



    (See Pirates of Silicon Valley and Woz's confirmation that those scenes were accurate.)



    ...and lo and behold, Windows followed shortly... directly replicating many features, icons, and more...



    ... followed eventually by an out of court settlement (but no official admission by MS of stealing Apple's IP).



    Apple licensed from Xerox... MS only paid Apple after it went to court and the outcome was obvious.



    Spot the good corporate citizen and the bully.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    lakingsfnlakingsfn Posts: 141member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by grad student

    xerox came up with quite a bit, apple came up with quite a bit more. as far as i remember, apple invented: scroll bars, pull down menu's, tons of direct manipulation with mouse, and hired a lot of the xerox engineers who came up with the gui in the first place. however, it is important to remember that the computer industry is a dynamic environment where ideas are exchanged and improved upon all the time.



    Well said indeed.
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