Product Overview
In 1970, under company president Charles Peter McColough, Xerox opened the Xerox PARC (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) research facility. The facility developed many modern computing methods such as the mouse and the graphical user interface. From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the Xerox Alto in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a workstation and personal computer. The Alto was never commercially sold, as Xerox itself could not see the sales potential of it. In 1979, several Apple Computer employees, including Steve Jobs, visited Xerox PARC, interested in seeing their developments. Jobs and the others saw the commercial potential of the GUI and mouse, and began development of the Apple Lisa, which Apple introduced in 1983. Xerox later released a similar system to the Alto, the Xerox Star in 1981 as a workstation. It was the first commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have become commonplace in personal computers, including a bit-mapped display, a window-based GUI, mouse, Ethernet networking, file servers, print servers and e-mail. The Xerox Star, despite its technological breakthroughs, did not sell well due to its high price, costing $16,000 per unit. A typical Xerox Star-based office would have cost $100,000. In the mid 80s, Apple considered buying Xerox; however, a deal was never reached. Apple attempted to adapt the graphical user interface and mouse to a more affordable personal computer, aimed towards the business and education markets. The Apple Macintosh was released in 1984, and was the first personal computer to popularize the GUI and mouse amongst the public. In the late 1980s, Xerox sued Apple over their use of the graphical user interface. The Xerox case was dismissed because the three year statute of limitations had passed -- Xerox had waited too long to file a suit. Xerox PARC Research Corporate Laboratory T-Shirt
