The way we interact with computers has changed drastically over the last 40 years. Here is a brief pictorial history.
Created by hewittteacher on Jun 11, 2008
Last updated: 11/17/09 at 01:42 PM
Apple's OS X introduced a new level of interface experience with its slick high-resolution graphics.
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/full/macosx100.png
Apple's OS 9 was a big step up in visual clarity and attractiveness.
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/empty/macos90-1-1.png
Microsoft released the first version of Windows. Many elements of the graphical user interface were similar to Apple's Macintosh, released a year earlier. This led to a long legal battle between the two companies for rights to the GUI.
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/firstrun/win101.png
With the Macintosh, Apple released the first WYSIWYG word processor, called MacWrite. That stands for What You See Is What You Get, meaning, the way the page looks on the screen is how it will look when you print it.
http://lowendmac.com/conachey/06/art1115/about.gif
Apple released the Macintosh after the failed Lisa at a much lower price tag of $2,500.
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/empty/macos11.png
The Apple Lisa was the first commercially released computer to use a graphical user interface. It featured a word processor, calculator, clock, file manager, and a few other programs. It was slow and expensive ($10,000), which prevented it from being successful on the market.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/apple-lisa2xl/apple_lisa_screenshot.gif
Before computers used a graphical user interface, word processing programs required you to type keyboard commands to format text and you couldn't see what it was going to look like until you printed it. This picture is what a common program, Word Perfect, looked like.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5360/wordperfect51dosxi1.png
Until Windows in 1985, Microsoft made computers run without a graphical user interface. In DOS, you had to type commands at a prompt to open programs and files.
http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/vpc/images/dos1x.gif
The Xerox Alto has the first graphical user interface on a desktop computer. The screen had a unique vertical layout similar to a sheet of paper. You could click on files to open them in an application.
http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog-images/alto.jpg
The first mouse, invented by Douglas Engelbart.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/Firstmouseunderside.jpg
The teletype machine was used to type programs on punched tape that fed into the mainframe computer.
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HtmlHelp/Images2/TeletypeASR33.jpg
A punched tape roll was fed through a teletype machine to give instructions to the mainframe computer.
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HtmlHelp/Images2/PaperTape2.jpg
The first computers were controlled by inserting cards punched with holes. Output was also given on cards with holes punched in them that would then have to be interpreted.
http://www2.cit.cornell.edu/computer/history/images/Punched-Card-30.jpg
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