A Short History of the GUI, Apple & Microsoft
Jan 2007, Updated December 2007 & April 2008
Xerox Star, IBM PC, Macintosh, Early Windows, RISC & NeXT, Windows 3, Apple System 7, Excel, World Perfect,
Windows 95, Capone, Mac OS 8, iMac, OS X, Windows XP, Tiger, Vista, Leopard, Conclusion, GUI Evolution

Douglas Engelbart, an American engineer working at the Stanford Research Institute, dreamt up the idea of a mouse driven graphical user interface back in 1960s. Researchers working for Xerox in Palo Alto California were inspired by Engelbart's work, and they went on to create a machine called the 'Alto' in 1973. Eventually the Alto project led to the 'Xerox Star 8010 Document Processor' which was released commercially in 1981 for US$17,000 (about $40,000 in today’s money). Although interesting historically, only a handful were actually manufactured.
 
1981 Xerox Star. The first commercial GUI computer.
 


1981 also saw the release of the IBM PC. At that time the market for personal computers was highly fragmented with dozens of manufactures competing in both in the home and business markets. The first IBM PC was too expensive for the home market, but it proved a huge hit with business. "You can't get fired for buying an IBM" said many, but the PC quickly developed a more important attraction - open standards. Failing to realise the importance of the operating system, IBM purchased one from Microsoft. As a result other manufacturers were then able to copy the IBM hardware design and ship their 'Clones' with copies of MSDOS purchased directly from Microsoft. As a result, even without IBM's approval or participation, their PC became an open standard with virtually unstoppable economies of scale. By 1990 IBM Compatible PCs captured an 80% market share, today it runs at greater than 95%.
 
One of the many IBM PC compatibles that flooded the US market
 

 
IBM PC & Clones Market Share
 

 
Although IBM PCs running MSDOS dominated the market, Apple will be forever remembered as the innovative company behind the first mass market GUI based computer.

Steve Jobs, co owner of Apple Computers, visited Xerox in 1979 and left extremely impressed by the Alto. Over the next several years he hired many Xerox engineers, and invested many millions of dollars developing a marketable GUI based computer. In 1983 Apple finally released the $10,000 'Lisa'. It was far too expensive and failed completely, but a year later Apple was able to launch the much cheaper Macintosh which eventually became very popular. Although Jobs took the idea of mouse and graphical user interface from Xerox, there is no doubt that his team at Apple contributed a very great deal to development of the GUI (eg: Overlapping Windows, Dialogue Box, Trash Can).

Before GUIs, users relied on complicated key combinations and typed commands to control computers. Steve Jobs focused on bringing computers to the masses by making them friendly, fun and easy to use - and he succeeded.

In 1985, before the success of the Macintosh was clear, Apple's board of directors forced 30 year old Steve Jobs to resign. The Lisa had failed, Apple was loosing ground in word-processing, there had been disagreements over costs and the hyperactive Jobs had become very hard to work with. In 1997 Apple brought Jobs back when it purchased NeXT.
 
1984 Apple Macintosh, first popular GUI computer:
 

 
1984 Mac GUI:
 

 
Screenshot of the included MacPaint
 

 
The development of the GUI made the Apple Mac popular for Graphical Desktop Publishing, but the IBM PC clone was still able to maintain market dominance. Meanwhile Microsoft worked on a GUI of it's own, and in 1985 it released an add-on to MSDOS called 'Windows 1.0'. However, this first version of Windows came with no useful compatible applications and its general functionality was limited by legal challenges from Apple. After defeating the law suites (Bill Gates defended them with the claim “hey you copied from Xerox”) it was able to release the much improved Windows 2.0 in 1987. That same year, two important programs written to work with Windows 2.0 were released: Microsoft Excel and Desktop Publisher Aldus PageMaker (the latter had previously only been available on the Apple Mac). Some computer historians date the release of PageMaker, the first appearance of a significant and non-Microsoft application for Windows, as the beginning of the success of Windows.
 
1987 Windows 2.0
 
 
 
 It is interesting to compare the GUIs at this stage.
 
Windows could run applications side by side and had minimization and maximization buttons. Although the $10k Apple Lisa supported multiple applications, up until Operating System 7 in 1991 the Macintosh could only run one application at a time.
 
Apple applications shared a common menu bar in a fixed location at the top of the screen - a design which remains today. Windows, by contrast, demanded each window maintain its own interface. The Apple approach made sense at the time, especially on a machine that can only run one process at a time. In future years, however, it has suffered two major disadvantages. First, applications running in a window on a big screen could appear a long way from their menu bar. Second, applications had reduced interface flexibility, eg advent of 'Skins' and the new Office 2007 Menu system. Today, the Microsoft approach is the standard used by non Apple GUIs such as Linux etc.
 
Apple used the common menu bar at the top of the window to launch applications, but Microsoft instead chose a 'Program Manger' application that contained icon shortcuts to programs and other folders. The Microsoft approach allowed for the hierarchical organisation of large numbers of applications / shortcuts (which was not possible with the simple Apple Menu), but it also contributed to clutter and complexity as the user opened folder after folder in search of his target. In 1995 Microsoft completely replaced the Program Manger technique with the 'Start Menu'.
 
Apple adopted a friendly icon based approach to browsing the hard drive but Windows employed a vertical tree based application called File Manager. The vertical tree approach is much more effective, but novice computer users often struggle to understand it. This difference is one