I was thinking about the Macintosh computer, the first one that was released in 1984. I remember a neighbor of mine having one. It was the first computer that had a GUI(Graphical User Interface). Steve Jobs got the idea from the Xerox Alto, and this was a computer that was released in 1973 by Xerox which had GUI operating system. The price of this computer was $32,000 back in 1973. This was when a car cost about $3200. It had all the features a modern computer had, like a mouse, keyboard, hard drive, networking, and GUI O.S.. It had about 512 kilobytes of RAM. Macintosh 1984 had 128 kilobytes of RAM, mouse, keyboard, floppy disk drive, and a GUI O.S.. Even that computer didn't have a hard drive in 1984.
Xerox is a company that specializes in making copiers, and they were famous for it. If you said Xerox it meant a copier, like I wanted this Xeroxed. Xerox felt that their innovation would undermine their copier business, because a GUI based O.S. would reduce the need for copying documents. After all, you can store documents in hard drives or on servers with many hard drives. As a result, Xerox shelved it, but there were others that got inspiration from it, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others. Before we had GUI based operating systems, it was all command based, so you needed to know commands to operate a computer. O.S. like Unix, Dos, Apple DOS, CP/M, C64 O.S., and others.
From 1984, you started to see GUI based O.S., like MacOS (1984), Amiga Workbench 1.0 (1985), Atari TOS (1985), Microsoft Windows 1.0 (1985), and others. As processors got more powerful, and the price of RAM started to become more affordable GUI O.S. became a reality. In the PC world GUI based O.S. weren't mainstream even in 1989. Most people used MS-DOS using commands. Microsoft released Windows 3.0 in mid 1991, and after that GUI based O.S. started to become mainstream. The requirements for Windows 3.0 was steep, and many computers had problems running it. People that had 386 DX and 486 DX machines with at least 4 MB could run it without any issues. A GUI based operating system required more computing power, so 8088, 8086, 80286, and 80386 SX machines simply didn't have enough computing power and RAM to run it smoothly. People who didn't have enough power would run into stability issues, and programs would run slowly and sluggishly.
As for other operating systems, like Amiga O.S. or MacOS, they didn't have a hardware problem, because each computer was optimized for the operating systems they were using. For the PC that wasn't the case, because everyone had different hardware specs. Microsoft would try to squeeze in as many users as possible, so someone using a 286 with 2 MB of RAM could meet the system requirements to use Windows 3.0, but it would barely run.
By 1993, GUI based operating systems had become mainstream, but MS-DOS was still used. In the PC world, people could use MS-DOS or Windows 3.X. When I got a Pentium 100 MHz in late 1994, it came with Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.0.
By 1995, GUI based operating systems became the norm. By then, the point and click and operating system had been perfected. It did have a lot of bugs, but it laid the basis of a modern operating system. It was easy to use, and it resembles all preceding Microsoft Windows based O.S.. Unlike Windows 3.X which required MS-DOS to install Windows 3.X, Windows 95/98 had MS-DOS built into it. The version MS-DOS was MS-DOS 7.0 for Windows 95, and MS-DOS 7.1 for Windows 98. Unlike the modern versions of Windows, you can run MS-DOS programs on Windows 95/98. MS-DOS was incorporated into Windows 95/98/Me to handle the lower functions, like booting the system up and to run older programs.
GUI operating systems allowed the masses to use computers without knowing commands. You can still use commands in operating systems, like Dos prompt, Powershell, or terminal for Linux. This will enable you to use your computer more efficiently, and writing scripts. For the basic user, they don't have to know any of that stuff. Today, GUI based operating systems are the standard.
Ace1000ks1975
I was thinking about the Macintosh computer, the first one that was released in 1984. I remember a neighbor of mine having one. It was the first computer that had a GUI(Graphical User Interface). Steve Jobs got the idea from the Xerox Alto, and this was a computer that was released in 1973 by Xerox which had GUI operating system. The price of this computer was $32,000 back in 1973. This was when a car cost about $3200. It had all the features a modern computer had, like a mouse, keyboard, hard drive, networking, and GUI O.S.. It had about 512 kilobytes of RAM. Macintosh 1984 had 128 kilobytes of RAM, mouse, keyboard, floppy disk drive, and a GUI O.S.. Even that computer didn't have a hard drive in 1984.
Xerox is a company that specializes in making copiers, and they were famous for it. If you said Xerox it meant a copier, like I wanted this Xeroxed. Xerox felt that their innovation would undermine their copier business, because a GUI based O.S. would reduce the need for copying documents. After all, you can store documents in hard drives or on servers with many hard drives. As a result, Xerox shelved it, but there were others that got inspiration from it, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others. Before we had GUI based operating systems, it was all command based, so you needed to know commands to operate a computer. O.S. like Unix, Dos, Apple DOS, CP/M, C64 O.S., and others.
From 1984, you started to see GUI based O.S., like MacOS (1984), Amiga Workbench 1.0 (1985), Atari TOS (1985), Microsoft Windows 1.0 (1985), and others. As processors got more powerful, and the price of RAM started to become more affordable GUI O.S. became a reality. In the PC world GUI based O.S. weren't mainstream even in 1989. Most people used MS-DOS using commands. Microsoft released Windows 3.0 in mid 1991, and after that GUI based O.S. started to become mainstream. The requirements for Windows 3.0 was steep, and many computers had problems running it. People that had 386 DX and 486 DX machines with at least 4 MB could run it without any issues. A GUI based operating system required more computing power, so 8088, 8086, 80286, and 80386 SX machines simply didn't have enough computing power and RAM to run it smoothly. People who didn't have enough power would run into stability issues, and programs would run slowly and sluggishly.
As for other operating systems, like Amiga O.S. or MacOS, they didn't have a hardware problem, because each computer was optimized for the operating systems they were using. For the PC that wasn't the case, because everyone had different hardware specs. Microsoft would try to squeeze in as many users as possible, so someone using a 286 with 2 MB of RAM could meet the system requirements to use Windows 3.0, but it would barely run.
By 1993, GUI based operating systems had become mainstream, but MS-DOS was still used. In the PC world, people could use MS-DOS or Windows 3.X. When I got a Pentium 100 MHz in late 1994, it came with Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.0.
By 1995, GUI based operating systems became the norm. By then, the point and click and operating system had been perfected. It did have a lot of bugs, but it laid the basis of a modern operating system. It was easy to use, and it resembles all preceding Microsoft Windows based O.S.. Unlike Windows 3.X which required MS-DOS to install Windows 3.X, Windows 95/98 had MS-DOS built into it. The version MS-DOS was MS-DOS 7.0 for Windows 95, and MS-DOS 7.1 for Windows 98. Unlike the modern versions of Windows, you can run MS-DOS programs on Windows 95/98. MS-DOS was incorporated into Windows 95/98/Me to handle the lower functions, like booting the system up and to run older programs.
GUI operating systems allowed the masses to use computers without knowing commands. You can still use commands in operating systems, like Dos prompt, Powershell, or terminal for Linux. This will enable you to use your computer more efficiently, and writing scripts. For the basic user, they don't have to know any of that stuff. Today, GUI based operating systems are the standard.
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6