Triumph of the Nerds Part III

August 24th 1995: Windows 95 is launched

In 1983, computers were still difficult for the average person to use

Graphical User Interface (GUI):  allowed for PCs to become more user friendly

In 1971, Xerox set up the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

The Xerox Alto computer was built in 1973. It doesn't qualify as the first personal computer because it was not for sale and the parts costed about $10,000

"It had the first GUI using a mouse to point to information on the screen. It was linked to other PCs, by a system called ethernet, the first computer network. And what you saw on the screen was precisely what you got on your laser printer. It was way ahead of its time."

The companies headquarters did not see the value in this technology.

"Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry today. Could have been you know a company ten times its size. Could have been IBM - could have been the IBM of the nineties. Could have been the Microsoft of the nineties."-Steve Jobs

The Macintosh computer was Apple's answer to the IBM PC. Bill Gates was hired to design a GUI as the software. It needed more applications in order to become a successful competitor.

John Warnock: co-founder of Adobe systems, helped developed the laser printer.

The Adobe Application created "desk top" publishing

"The launch of Windows 3 in 1990 killed off Apple's hopes that the Macintosh would win the GUI wars." It made IBM PCs and all the clones as easy to use as Macs. 

Larry Ellison, the founder of oracle is quoted as saying 
"I hate the PC with a passion. Me going down to the store and buying Windows 95, I've got to get into my car drive down to a store buy a cardboard box full of bits you know encoded on a piece of plastic CDROM and you bring it home and read a manual install this thing - you must be kidding you know, put the stuff on the net - it's bits, don't put bits in cardboard, cardboard in trucks, trucks to stores, me go to the store, you know, pick the stuff out, it's insane. OK I love the Internet - I want information you know it flows across the wire."

In 1995 he made a prediction that the PC would be replaced with a cheap device called the "information appliance." I believe that this prediction has come to pass in the form of smart phones and tablets.