The Xerox Alto: A Personal Retrospective

[@reedfrey8745]

This is an excellent companion to reading the great "Dealers of Lightning" about that time at PARC. Now as long ago as the time they talk about was then.

[@johnnylima1337]

at 59:00 Butler Lampson, talking about the longevity of an original e-mail program called Laurel developed at Xerox PARC while discussing his current project, along with Charles Thacker and Alan Kay, of a tablet computer called the Dynabook in 2001: "Laurel was an interesting example of something we all have to learn over and over again. Chuck [Thacker] and I have been learning it for the seventh or eigth time in connection with this tablet [Dynabook], which is that user interface design is hard, and the only way to do it that I know is to do it over and over again. Because nobody is smart enough to know beforehand what is really going to work and what isn't. If you're a talented designer you can cut out a lot of the crap, but a lot is going to be left. And then the only way I know to deal with that is to try it again and again. The Laurel user interface is extremely simple appearing, but it took about a year and a half to design. A several points along the way I thought the guys were wasting their time, but I was completely wrong. It's funny that after 30 years we have not learned, as far as I can tell, any better than we could in the 1970s. It just takes incredible amounts of iteration."

[@dpilankar]

Brilliant people who paved the way for us :) Thank you

[@Celestialbeing21]

ComputerHistory you should make a transcript so people can be able to reference when students do research behind the history of the Personal Computer.

[@ForbinKid]

Nice to see the trail blazers and hear their stories.

[@thejasonknightfiascoband5099]

Yeah. The engineers in the R&D department @ Xerox were reeeeeaaaaaal smart. Smart enough to be @ the mother of all demos in 1968. RIP Douglas Engelbart.

[@ConanXin]

施乐公司帕洛阿尔托研究中心（PARC）成立于1970年，在相对较短的时间内创造了一个计算模式的转变。现代个人计算机中的许多技术，包括以窗口和图标为特征的高质量图形用户界面、计算机生成的位图图形、以太网网络化分布式计算和激光打印，在1970年代末都是PARC的成熟技术。 使用这些技术的平台是1973年在PARC开发的施乐公司的奥托（Alto）个人电脑。尽管以今天的标准来看，奥托（Alto）电脑又小又慢，但它的灵活性使它成为硬件和软件实验的理想系统。 在这次演讲中，奥托（Alto）的设计师查克·萨克尔（Chuck Thacker）和巴特勒·兰普森（Butler Lampson）描述了阿奥托（Alto）的一些应用和技术，以及在PARC的特殊工作环境和使这一切发生的特别有才华的一群人。

[@CO8848_2]

It shows originality is not enough, you have to make it cheap enough to win.

[@ih8tusernam3s]

Steve Jobs would have never been successful without these guys, many people say he basically copied the Alto to create the Mac.

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

Indeed, but one must not forget that the Alto was quite crude in comparison. Some important UI inventions were done at Apple during the development of the Lisa and the Mac: Drag-and-drop, and pull-down menus, for instance. Which we take for granted today. but the Alto or Star didn't have.

[@Neojhun]

I would die of wisdom if i was in that room. I realised halfway that the audience comprised of many of the legends of Silicon Valley.

[@gugenet]

The sound on this recording is really awful. This is what happens when people think that "we don't need a sound technician, we'll just turn on the equipment and record!"

[@tjugofyra24]

Or - there is a sound technician but they insist on using lavalier microphones which could be useless in some live venues. This is for sure the oldest comment I have ever replied to. Hope you are well, Geir.

[@eugrus]

There is gonna be a warp drive before there's a paperless office!

[@jeremiahwilson1781]

head honchos at Xerox back then had no clue about what thier developers actually developed with the Alto. WAY ahead of its time. Xerox missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Instead of Apple..Google...or Android..or any of it....could of and should of been lowly ole Xerox. Oh well. Thier loss.

[@RonJohn63]

No, they didn't miss an opportunity, since the required chips (CPU, RAM, IO) weren't fast enough nor cheap enough before 1984. Also, see 52:01. researchers are famously *not* the people needed to write shippable hardware and software.

[@gm2407]

@@RonJohn63 Imagine trying to find a market that believed in the cost benefit for the Xerox Alto. It must have been difficult to know what you have and not have a clue how to get a mass market for it. As you said it required killer apps and massproducable components.

[@ElGordo2497]

I wish it was 2001 again. I was 4 and didn’t have a care in the world.

[@Neojhun]

WTF, that looks like a slim low powered Tablet back in 2001. WTF, yes i know ther was Windows XP Tablets back then but they were a joke. These guys are so lucky.

[@ZakKohler]

Thank you

[@danbroom]

when was this recorded?

[@ZakKohler]

danbroom 2001

[@Jwdude123]

Title should be: “how we gave away the company”

[@Frisenette]

Comprehension is not your strong suit? They basically said the complete opposite.

[@werkis2]

Was Steve Jobs there to :D seems he stole iPad idea - that device on desk !? :D

[@MaddTheSane]

I think the idea for the iPad was in Jobs' mind when the Mac was released. I do know that they were working on an iPad before the iPhone.

[@andy16666]

Actually, the original vision for the Alto (or one of them) was to shrink it into a tablet form eventually. That's why it had a portrait screen. I forget which of the original developers mentioned this.

[@billba]

What device is that?

[@tremain1066]

How sad that managenent was so myopic So lucky for IBM and Microsoft Bob Tremain

[@davidchang5862]

I really don’t understand. If Parc were so awesome, why didn’t they break away from Xerox and form their own company ? At least, they wouldn’t see all their inventions being stolen due to the stupidity of some folks at the top.

[@bugnar7]

hahaha xerox.... so how are those mouse and graphical interface patents working for you? oh wait....

[@jackmaynard8528]

dont worry we know the facts xerox invented the internet

[@jackmaynard8528]

xerox can sleep at nite nicely those other punk companies ???? i hope these others are tossing n turning

[@nholt]

and yet Steve Jobs gets all the credit....

[@ObnovaDomu]

Who's steve jobs?

[@tremain1066]

And a dead company Complete business failure Must be so proud.