Xerox versus Apple: ‘Star’ Wars

© Mark Ollig

It was a legal and technological battle over the origins of the graphical user interface.

On Dec. 14, 1989, Xerox Corp. filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc. for $150 million, alleging they copied proprietary elements of its Xerox Star and Smalltalk systems.

Initially developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the early 1970s, these features included a graphical user interface system (GUI, pronounced “gooey”) with file icons, pull-down menus, drag-and-drop functionality, and object-oriented design.

Apple incorporated its Finder GUI into its Lisa and Macintosh (Mac) computers, released in 1981 and 1982, respectively, designed to be used with a mouse.

Xerox claimed that Apple’s Finder technology was derived from Xerox’s Star 8010 Information System computer, which was designed in the late 1970s and released in 1981.

In the 1980s, “Finder” was an intuitive file manager and graphical user interface for Mac users. It made managing files and navigating the computer’s graphical interface easy and efficient.

The 1973 Xerox Alto prototype’s advanced hardware and software desktop graphical user interface with icons and mouse interaction influenced Xerox’s Star and Apple’s operating systems.

In April 1981, the Xerox Star computer was released with its groundbreaking GUI. “It was completely different and so much better than what had been before. We believed we were changing the world,” said Terry Roberts, who designed and tested the user interface.

Xerox felt the unauthorized use of its graphical interface elements had a considerable influence on subsequent interfaces, especially those of the Apple Lisa and Macintosh.

Xerox accused Apple of unlawfully integrating its design features into the Lisa and Macintosh, including the desktop interface, icons, and drag-and-drop actions, without acquiring licensing from Xerox Corporation.

Xerox stated Apple had access to its technology during the late 1970s and 1980s by hiring knowledgeable Xerox Star computer software developers and used concepts from its Smalltalk object-oriented language, which is said to have inspired the mouse-driven GUI elements later adopted by Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh.

Smalltalk, an early object-oriented programming language, was developed by Xerox in the mid-1970s.

This language empowered users to interact with a computer operating a mouse, and it laid the groundwork for mouse-driven graphical user interfaces in Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers.

The arguments during the case involved copyright law, access to confidential information, and user interface design principles.

Xerox insisted Apple’s copyright claim for the Lisa and Macintosh is misleading and that their design changes do not absolve them of infringement.

Apple claimed significant improvements and innovations on Xerox’s concepts, justifying the originality of the Lisa and Macintosh.

On March 23, 1990, Judge Vaughn Walker of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Apple, dismissing most of Xerox’s infringement claims.

Judge Walker cited several factors, including fair use arguments and insufficient similarities between the graphical user interfaces.

The court’s decision ruled that Apple did not intentionally commit copyright infringement, nor copy the “expression” of Xerox’s technology but rather the abstract “ideas” behind it, which are not protected by copyright law.

The verdict given by the court did not provide an explicit confirmation that Apple owns the graphical user interface and clarified that its responsibility did not involve creating monopolies or deciding who has the authority to govern the future appearance of graphical user interfaces.

Although Apple admitted to taking inspiration from Xerox’s design, the court found that Apple’s implementation of the GUI was sufficiently distinct and did not directly copy any copyrighted elements, leading to the dismissal of copyright infringement claims.

The verdict justified the widespread use of GUIs, paving the way for their universal application in computing devices.

The NLS (oN-Line System), developed by Douglas Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, introduced graphical computing elements that influenced the development of the graphical user interfaces by Xerox and Apple.

On Dec. 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and his team unveiled NLS at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, CA.

NLS (oN-Line System) was a revolutionary computer collaboration system developed in the 1960s by Douglas Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute.

NLS featured the first practical features in modern computing, such as a graphical user interface using a mouse, video conferencing (similar to Zoom or Skype), screen projection, creation of hypertext links (a precursor to the Web), file creation, word processing, real-time document collaboration, dynamic text command line editing, list processing, and macro programs.

These features were groundbreaking for their time.

The significance of Engelbart’s presentation witnessed by people over 55 years ago cannot be overlooked, as it laid the foundation for the technologies we use today.

I highly recommend watching Douglas Engelbart’s demonstration at tinyurl.com/NLSbytes.

May the GUI be with you, even in a galaxy far, far away.

GUI: the computer game changer

© Mark Ollig

On April 27, 1973, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) unveiled the Alto, a landmark digital computer featuring a unique user interface.

Douglas Engelbart’s pioneering NLS (oN-Line System) computing software of overlapping windows, hypertext, and mouse control, which he demonstrated in 1968, was further developed and used in the Alto computer.

The Alto contained a graphical user interface (GUI – pronounced “gooey”), using a bit-mapped high-resolution vertical screen of 606 by 808 pixels navigated using a mouse.

It also featured a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) software tool, allowing users to edit content in a form that closely resembles its final appearance when printed or displayed.

The Alto performed document handling and processing, program file transfers, email sending, and graphic design applications.

They navigated through file menus, program icons, side windows, and check boxes.

The three-button mouse used to perform these tasks was designed by Bill English, a Xerox computer engineer, based on the point-and-click device he and Engelbart created in 1964.

The GUI replaced text-based commands with labeled program icons, sliding windows, and clickable menus that users navigated seamlessly with simple mouse clicks.

In 1973, Xerox also developed Ethernet, a wired local area network (LAN) technology that tethered Alto workstations, enabling effortless data sharing, multitasking, and document printing across compatible Xerox machines.     

This cornerstone technology laid the foundation for the interconnected future of computing devices.

The Alto computer featured an Ethernet port and marked a significant technological milestone, introducing a new era of networked computing devices.

Xerox installed Alto computers within their organization and in four testing sites, including one in the Oval Office of the White House in 1978.

In a 1975 interview, Engelbart said, “It’s very nice to see some of the ideas that originated at SRI showing up in the Xerox system.”

In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer.

In November 1979, Steve Jobs, then-president of Apple, visited PARC with other Apple employees.

Jobs was dumbfounded to see Xerox employees interacting with the Alto computer’s graphical user interface by operating a mouse and not using keyboard text commands. 

“I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life. And within, you know, ten minutes, it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday,” Steve Jobs reportedly said about the Xerox Alto.

Jobs also saw Xerox’s Ethernet and laser printers.

By the end of the 1970s, Xerox Corporation was using 1,000 Altos and had placed 500 in government, educational, and research institutions, including one in the Oval Office of the White House.

A Xerox video showcasing their Alto computer office system can be found at http://tinyurl.com/XeroxAltoPC.

The 1973 cost of an Alto computing system was $32,000, equivalent to $226,700 today.

Perhaps due to the cost, the Alto computer was never commercially sold by Xerox, which discontinued its production in 1981.

However, April 27, 1981, Xerox began commercially selling a computer/workstation, the Xerox Star 8010 Information System, built on the Xerox Alto GUI platform.

The Star featured accurate “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” document editing and integrated software applications like spreadsheets, graphics, and email.

Its Ethernet core design simplified file sharing and printing management within a local area networked environment.

Dr. David Canfield Smith, one of the designers of Xerox Star, is credited with inventing computer icons and the desktop presentation, which revolutionized how we interact with today’s computers.

The sales of the Xerox Star 8010 were low due to its high price tag of $16,595.

Xerox ended production in 1985 to concentrate on its core business of printers and copiers.

On Jan. 19, 1983, Apple began marketing the Apple Lisa desktop computer, operated through a graphical user interface.

The name Lisa sparked a debate; Apple stated it stood for Local Integrated Software Architecture, while others said the computer was named after Steve Jobs’s daughter, Lisa.

The Apple Lisa was a personal computer with an enhanced graphical user interface with drag-and-drop icons, customizable settings, windows, pull-down menus, a trash can, spreadsheets, graphics, and word processing.

Lisa used a 5 MHz Motorola CPU with 1-2 MB RAM, dual 5.25-inch floppy drives, a 5-10 MB hard drive, a 12-inch black and white monochrome raster display with a resolution of 720 pixels by 364 pixels, and a model A9M0050 mouse based on the one used with the Xerox Alto.

However, Lisa’s high price of $9,995 ($31,207.80 today) limited its sales, and by 1986 production ended.

By 1983, personal computers like IBM, Commodore, Atari, Texas Instruments, Tandy/RadioShack, Kaypro, Compaq, and Sinclair became popular but lacked graphical user interfaces.

On Jan. 24, 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, an all-in-one desktop computer with a built-in screen, mouse, and user-friendly GUI with desktop icons, pull-down menus, and drag-and-drop functionality.

It received acclaim and became famous for its ease of use, stable operating system, and graphical user interface.

In 1989, Xerox Corporation filed a $150 million lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc.

Xerox claimed Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers violated its intellectual property regarding its graphical user interface elements.

Stay tuned for next week’s gooey showdown.

 1973 Xerox Alto.

Photo by Carlo Nardone, Computer History Museum.
The picture includes the Alto's 3-button mouse and the optional
5-key chorded keyboard (chord keyset) which never became popular.

Louise Brooks: a silent starlit journey

© Mark Ollig

During the 1920s, silent film actresses like Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, and Clara Bow graced the silver screen.

My favorite, Louise Brooks, was born Mary Louise Brooks Nov. 14, 1906, in Cherryvale, KS.

During childhood, she was known as “Brooksie” and lived across the street from Vivian Roberta Jones, also born in Cherryvale, who became known as Vivian Vance and played Ethel Mertz on the TV show “I Love Lucy.”

Louise’s family relocated to Wichita, KS, when she was 13.

From 1922 to 1923, she toured with the Denishawn School of Dancing, with stops in Minnesota.

In 1924, Louise joined George White’s Scandals on Broadway in New York City as a chorus member and later became a specialty dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1925, she inked a five-year acting agreement with Paramount Pictures.

Louise Brooks made her first uncredited appearance in the silent film “The Street of Forgotten Men” (1925), produced at Paramount’s Astoria Studios in Queens, NY.

Her first credited acting role was in “The American Venus” (1926), followed by her first leading role in “A Social Celebrity” (1926).

Some of Brook’s other silent films include: “It’s the Old Army Game” (1926) with W.C. Fields, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em” (1926), “Now We’re in the Air” (1927), “Rolled Stockings” (1927), “Beggars of Life” (1928), and “A Girl in Every Port” (1928).

With her iconic bob hairstyle, Louise Brooks was an enigmatic flapper figure who left an indelible mark on the silver screen.

She exemplified 1920s flapper culture by challenging societal norms and celebrating her individuality by embracing a lifestyle viewed at the time as undisciplined and rebellious.

Louise’s natural beauty and acting talent allowed her to bring to life the emotions of her onscreen characters in a way that few others of the silent film era could.

Popular movie entertainment magazines of the era, like Photoplay, regularly featured Louise in their articles and advertisements.

Her compelling performance in “A Girl in Every Port” drew the interest of the renowned German film director and screenwriter Georg Wilhelm (G.W.) Pabst.

Pabst was searching for an actress to star as Lulu in his upcoming film “Pandora’s Box” and strongly desired to cast Louise Brooks in the role.

In mid-October of 1928, she completed filming “The Canary Murder Case,” another silent film for Paramount Pictures.

When Louise entered contract negotiations with Paramount Pictures, they said she would not receive a salary increase, offering the option of continuing with her current salary or resigning.

“Refusing to take what amounted to a cut, I quit Paramount,” Louise later wrote.

When she later learned of Pabst’s desire to cast her as Lulu, she sent a cablegram message accepting his offer to travel to Berlin, Germany, and star in his film.

Louise came close to losing the part, as German actress Marlene Dietrich was with Pabst in his Berlin office considering a contract to play Lulu just as Brooks’ cablegram arrived.

After Pabst read the cablegram message, he chose Louise Brooks to play Lulu.

Louise stayed at the Eden Hotel in Berlin from late October to November 1928 while filming “Pandora’s Box.”

I learned the film version of “Pandora’s Box” that premiered in the US in December of 1929 had considerable censorship edits.

Back in Hollywood, Paramount Pictures decided to convert their silent movie “The Canary Murder Case” into a talkie.

After Louise returned to New York, Paramount Pictures called and ordered her to “get on the train at once for Hollywood” to record the voice for Margaret O’Dell, the character Louise played in the movie.

She refused.

Even after Paramount offered her a contract with more money, Louise still refused, so Paramount hired Margaret Livingston to do the voice dubbing.

Louise later wrote that Paramount was so angry they spread the story they did not use her voice “because I was no good in talkies.”

In Europe, during June and July of 1929, Louise filmed “Diary of a Lost Girl,” released in September of the same year.

During August and September 1929, around Paris, France, she filmed “Prix de Beauté” (Beauty Prize), directed by Augusto Genina and co-written by Pabst.

In December 1929, she returned to the US, which had already experienced the stock market’s collapse, leading to the crash on Wall Street.

The following financial depression caused economic suffering by millions, redirected fashion trends, and caused the flapper style to fall out of favor.

In Hollywood, Louise had refused an offer from Warner Brothers Pictures to star alongside James Cagney in “The Public Enemy” (1931); the part instead went to Jean Harlow.

In April 1935, Louise Brooks and Hungarian partner Dario Borzani appeared in a ballroom dance act at the Capital Theatre in New York City.

In October 1935, she auditioned for a role in “Dancing Feet,” a film by Republic Pictures.

“The studio gave the part I had tested for to a girl who couldn’t dance,” Louise wrote in 1982.

Louise Brooks’ 25th and final movie, “Overland Stage Raiders” (1938), featured a young actor named John Wayne. She spoke in this movie and has a fine recording voice.

In 1940, she moved to Wichita, where she established a dance studio and wrote “The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing” booklet.

Louise left for New York in 1943 and worked various jobs, including teaching dance, writing columns, radio work, and sales at Saks Fifth Avenue.

In the mid-1950s, European film enthusiasts showed renewed interest in the movies Louise Brooks had acted in.

In 1956, James Card, a film curator and founder of the Motion Pictures Collection at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, convinced Louise to move to Rochester to, “Study old films and write bits about my rediscovered past,” she would later pen in her 1982 book, “Lulu in Hollywood,” a revealing autobiography of her personal and onscreen life.

Her character, Lulu, in “Pandora’s Box,” inspired the book’s title, and I am fortunate to own a first-edition copy, along with seven of her movies and other memorabilia.

Louise Brooks, a gifted dancer, actress, and author, passed away Aug. 8, 1985, in Rochester at 78.

Photograph of Louise Brooks
in New York City
(photo taken in 1926 by Edward Thayer Monroe)

A silent cinema journey

© Mark Ollig

During the mid-1970s, the introduction of Betamax and VHS tape machines ignited a home entertainment revolution.

We could rent or buy movies shortly after their theatrical release and watch them at home on television.

I remember renting movie tapes from the Mid-Town Video store below what was once known as the Campbell Building in Winsted.

“Be kind, please rewind.”

You could even rent the machine to play the tapes on.

Thanks, Steve.

Despite predictions, VHS and Betamax did not cause the demise of movie theaters, although they did lead to a decline in theater attendance during the 1980s.

However, countless moviegoers still craved the theater experience, which included savoring the aroma of salty and buttery popcorn wafting through the air from the lobby popcorn machine.

Finding a good seat with a clear view of the projection screen was always a sign that we would enjoy the movie.

The movie is about to begin. The two large red curtains part horizontally, exposing the projection screen, also known as the silver screen.

The term “silver screen” originated from using silver-coated screens in the early days of cinema projection.

Silver was used as a reflective material to enhance the brightness and visibility of light-projected images on the screen.

The movie projector whirs as its lamp illuminates the silver screen with moving images, transporting us to a cinematic wonderland, temporarily freeing us from our worries.

Last year, I became interested in silent films from the 1920s.

To learn more, I researched and watched several movies from that era.

In 1924, a movie ticket for a silent film was 25 cents, equivalent to $4.50 in 2023.

During the 1920s, silent filmmakers pushed the boundaries of the visual narrative.

Intertitle film cards with text script were inserted at various moments during the film to give the silent movie a narrative and conversational dialog for the viewers.

Many silent film actors came from the stage theater.

Actors were trained in facial expressions, body language, and pantomime to effectively portray emotions and nonverbal communication that brought their characters to life.

Film directors employed creative camerawork to capture a scene in a choreographed manner; storyboards were used to sequence the shots in the movie.

Black-and-white film stock used in the 1920s was less light-sensitive than modern film, so filmmakers had to control light precisely to capture details in highlights and shadows.

The cinematographers used studio recording cameras, such as the Bell and Howell 2709 model, which captured films at variable frame rates of 16 to 24 frames per second.

Its flexibility allowed filmmakers to experiment with different speeds, influencing the mood and pacing of the scenes.

Imaginative narratives, set design, lighting, expressive acting, and live musical accompaniment, usually in the form of a piano, were standard practices in silent films.

After shooting the acting scenes, the next step in movie production involves editing by physically cutting and splicing film strip images on multiple reels for distribution in theaters via film canisters.

Cylindrical steel or aluminum reel canisters were used to store the celluloid film and had a screw-on lid for protection.

The standard length of a silent movie film reel was typically around 1,000 feet.

Silent films flickered at 16 frames per second in theaters equipped with arc-light or incandescent lamp projectors in the 1920s.

A reel of film that is 1,000 feet long runs for approximately 11 minutes, which means that a full-length silent film, which could range anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes, requires many film reels.

Intermissions in the silent film era weren’t just about getting more popcorn; they were vital pauses for the house projectionist to swap out an empty movie reel with the next one to be run.

Intermissions also allowed the theater’s piano player, who musically conveyed the “emotions” during the movie, to quickly rest and prepare the melody for the next film segment.

Film studios printed thick paper “lobby cards” featuring photographic stills and text information.

Usually about 11 by 14 inches in size, the lobby cards were introduced in the 1910s, featuring scenes from movies and famous actors of the time.

Whether displayed in the entrance foyer or outside the theater, lobby cards were an appealing way to promote movies and generate excitement.

The cards complemented movie posters and were a successful marketing tool for attracting paying moviegoers.

In 1925, Charlie Chaplin’s silent film “The Gold Rush” was released by United Artists, a studio that Chaplin co-founded.

The movie was originally ten film reels long but was reduced to nine for its theatrical release.

Plenty of lobby cards for the film were also distributed.

Immerse yourself in the cinematic wonder of a silent movie from the 1920s.

Just close your eyes and hear the rhythmic clicking of the movie projector’s gears, accompanied by the gentle hum of its spinning sprocket wheels.

The silver screen instantly transports you to the lavish interiors of an opulent Art Deco nightclub.

Our protagonist, a confident-looking, well-dressed flapper of the Roaring Twenties, sits at a round mahogany table, its surface shimmering under the soft lights. A chic cloche hat, a trendsetting style of that era, snugly covers her wavy, chin-length bob-cut hair.

The pianist at the theater fills the room with smooth and captivating jazz tunes as the silent movie plays.

Lobby card from the 1925 Charlie Chaplin 

silent movie "The Gold Rush"