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Graphical User Interface
Timeline
This timeline lists all of the graphical user interface environments that I
have been able to find information about through my own research and on the
Internet. I want to be as historically accurate as I can, however due to limited
available information there may be some mistakes. See my notes
section at the bottom of this page for known inaccuracies. If you see an error
and have additional information about it please e-mail me.
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April 1973, the first operational Alto
computer is completed at Xerox PARC.
The Alto is the first system to pull together all of the elements of
the modern Graphical User Interface.
Features:
3-button mouse.
Bit-mapped display.
The use of
graphical windows.
Ethernet network.
More
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1980: Three Rivers Computer Corporation
introduces the the Perq graphical workstation.
More
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1981 June: Xerox introduces the Star, the commercial
successor to the Alto.
Notable features:
Double-clickable icons, overlapping windows,
dialog boxes and a 1024*768 monochrome display.
More
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1983 January: Apple introduces the Lisa.
Notable features:
Pull down menus and menu bars.
More
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Visi Corp releases Visi On, the first integrated graphical software
environment for IBM PCs.
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Microsoft announces their new "Windows" program for the IBM
PC but does not release it until 1985.
Notable features:
Is supposed to have overlapping / resizable
windows.
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January 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh.
More
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September: Digital Research announces its GEM icon/desktop
user interface for 8086- and DOS-based computers. It also was later ported
to the Atari ST.
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June: "window system X" announced at MIT.
Versions 1-6 were monochrome only, and ran on DEC VS100's displays
connected to VAXen and VAXstations 1 and 2.
Versions 8-10 dealt
with color, for the VAXstation II/GPX. X10 is the first version that saw
widespread availability and use on many vendor's systems.
Version 11
was redesign for higher performance, more window management styles,
extensibility and better graphics capability
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1985: Geos released for Commodore 64 and later the Apple
II.
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July: Commodore introduces the Amiga 1000 with the
Amiga Workbench Version 1.0.
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August: Microsoft finally releases the first version of Windows.
Features:
Windows can not be overlapped, but are instead "tiled".
Windows are not allowed to cover an area at the bottom of the screen
that is reserved for "iconized" programs.
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1986: Apple threatens to sue Digital Research because the
GEM desktop looked too much like Apple's Macintosh. Digital Research
cripples the desktop application so Apple will not sue.
The new GEM desktop now has just two unmovable, non-resizable windows
for file browsing.
More
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March 1987 - Apple introduces the Apple
Macintosh II, the first color Macintosh.
Features: 640*480*256 color with 24 bit color card available.
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Microsoft releases the second version of Windows, version
2.03.
Features:
Finally has resizable / overlapping windows and new
windowing controls.
More
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Acorn releases "Arthur" for the Acorn computer, it is the
basis for RISC OS. RISC OS 2 and 3 have a similar look, but an improved
feel.
More
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September 1988: Apple releases GS/OS, a 16-bit operating
system with a Macintosh-like GUI for the Apple IIGS.
More
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October: IBM releases OS/2 1.10 Standard Edition (SE) which
added a graphical user interface called Presentation Manager. (OS/2
1.0 was text mode only!) The 1.10 GUI was written by Microsoft and
looked like Windows 2.
More
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October: The NeXT Computer is released for $6500. It
includes a 25 MHz '30 processor, 8 MB RAM, 250 MB optical disk drive, math
coprocessor, digital processor for real time sound, fax modem, and a 17"
monitor.
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1990: Commodore releases Amiga Workbench 2 for
the A3000.
Features: New 3d effects, a revised menu system and many other
improvements.
More
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May 1990: Windows 3.0 released by Microsoft
Features: Program Manager shell.
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November: PC-GEOS released by GeoWorks.
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Spring of 1992: IBM releases OS/2 Version 2.0, a true 32-bit OS.
Features a new "Workplace Shell", an object oriented user interface
that is heavily integrated with the rest of the OS.
More
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March: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1. The user interface is
basically the same as Windows 3.0 but now includes their "multimedia"
enhancements.
More
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September: Amiga Workbench 3 released for AGA Amigas.
Features: Images for backgrounds, color pallet remapping.
More
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May 1993 Microsoft releases the first version
of Windows NT, their 32-bit OS. They give it the version number "3.1" and
use the same user interface they do for regular Windows 3.1. Made
available for Intel, Power PC, Alpha, and MIPS systems.
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1994: QNX Software Systems releases the first embeddable
microkernel windowing system, the Photon microGUI.
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1995: Microsoft introduces Windows 95 on
August 24th.
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October: Be introduced BeOS at Agenda 96. The first version
was designed to run on a custom multiprocessor system known as the
"BeBox". Later made available for Power PC and Intel systems.
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1996: New Deal releases New Deal Office 2.5, which was
formerly PC-GEOS.
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IBM Releases OS/2 Warp 4 with a significant facelift for
the Workplace Shell.
More
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Microsoft releases Windows NT 4.0 with the same user
interface as Windows 95.
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July 1997: Mac OS 8 is finally released.
Selling 1.25 million copies in less than 2 weeks, it becomes the
best-selling software in that period.
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June 25, 1998: Microsoft releases Windows 98.
Features: Internet Explorer Web browser application takes over the role
of the Windows shell, advertising right on the desktop, entire help system
replaced by Internet Explorer.
More
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November 22, 1998: Shane Brooks Releases 98Lite, an
installer that removes or prevents the installation of Internet Explorer
with Windows 98.
Features No Internet Explorer or advertising, all the hardware support
of Windows 98, faster boot time, and the more responsive Windows 95
shell.
More
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March 1999 - Apple releases Mac OS X Server, a
Unix based OS with their Macintosh GUI.
More
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June 1999 - RISCOS Ltd releases RISC OS 4 for RiscPC, A7000
or A7000+ machines.
More
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January 5, 2000: Apple announces Aqua,
the new look for their upcoming MacOS X client.
More
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February 17, 2000: Microsoft Windows 2000 (AKA Windows NT 5) becomes
available in stores.
Features: The Internet Explorer web browser application finally takes
over the Windows NT UI.
More
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October 25, 2001: Microsoft releases Windows XP
(AKA Windows NT 5.1)
Features: Tons of eye candy.
"Product Activation" tethers XP to the existence of the Microsoft
corporation. |
Notes:
I am limiting this timeline to systems
that provide GUI services to other applications, this is why I am not including
individual graphical DOS apps or older graphical programs such as Sketchpad .
I am also not listing each version of a GUI system unless a significant
change has occurred in it. MacOS has kept the same basic user interface since
Version 1 and is therefore only mentioned a couple of times. Microsoft, on the
other hand thinks it is fun to make users learn a completely new interface every
few years, so each of the Windows interfaces is listed. (Except for Windows ME
which looked just like Windows 98 and 2000).
Issues:
X could just about have it's own history page. There is no
way I can list all of the different appearances of X here so I am just
mentioning it's creation. The picture is much more recent and not of the
original X.
The picture of NextStep is of a later version.
The picture
of PC-Geos is from Geos Ensemble 2.X with the presentation manager look.
The
picture of BeOS is from a later version.
The color Mac screen shot is of
MacOS 7.5.5, although these machines shipped with MacOS 6
I have
insufficient information about the history of Tandy Deskmate and the Apollo
workstation to place them on this timeline.
Back to
the Graphical User Interface Gallery
