Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 285: Invincible and Not Lonely at All

GUI is actually a graphical user interface. Just hearing the scientific name may make many people feel unfamiliar, but if we talk about MAC OS and Windows, then everyone knows it.

That's right, a graphical user interface is an interactive method that allows humans to execute commands through visual elements, such as windows, icons, and menus. Compared with traditional character interfaces, graphical user interfaces allow ordinary people to directly cross the threshold of learning code and quickly use a computer.

Its appearance has brought about a radical change in the difficulty of popularizing microcomputers. If the spreadsheet is the first step in transforming computers from professional tools into human production tools, then the marketization of graphical user interfaces is the foundation for microcomputers to enter thousands of households.

Because everyone knows that the quality of a tool is determined by how easy it is to use. If a tool can be used as easily as a hammer, or used as easily as a hoe, then the whole world will be embraced by this tool.

In Ethan's previous life, the graphical user interface was the only choice for future computer operating systems.

And now, Steve Jobs has finally found his masterpiece?
What the hell!

With the graphical user interface, he has nothing to worry about!
Its appearance can bring performance innovation to all computers!

As long as we grasp this, the price war started by Komodor will not matter!

The greater their hopes at this moment, the greater their disappointment will be in the future!
Because computers with character interfaces won’t last long!
Thinking of this, Ethan's mouth corners couldn't help but rise.

"Okay, I'll come right over."

After hanging up the phone, he also turned his gaze to his sister.

Before he could even open his mouth, Evelyn had already turned around to wipe the whiteboard.

This situation prompted Ethan to pick up the documents on the coffee table and light them with a lighter.

After all the information was reduced to ashes, the two left home and drove to the company.

The journey of more than ten minutes passed in a flash. When Ethan appeared in front of Jobs, the slightly fat guy jumped like a monkey and gave Ethan a bear hug. At the same time, he said excitedly: "Oh Ethan - you are finally here! Let's go, let's go to Xerox!"

"Let us witness history together!"

As if he felt that words were not enough, he glanced at Wozniak while pulling Ethan to Xerox. Little Fatty, who understood what brother meant, nodded immediately and said, "Yes - Ethan - we are really not exaggerating! Xerox's technology is really shocking! When they showed us their latest products, we were both stunned on the spot! Because they have opened a new era!"

"Their research will surely become one of the most important inventions in history!"

"Because their products will definitely change the living habits of the entire human race!"

Ethan, who had the memories of his previous life, was of course aware that the two people at this moment were not exaggerating the facts. The graphical user interface would have an astonishing market share of 100% in the future. Therefore, when the two Steves carried him to run, all Ethan could feel was their eagerness.

Because both of his feet were lifted off the ground.

Evelyn was puzzled by their excitement. She didn't understand what kind of invention could make Jobs and Wozniak explode like they had eaten gunpowder.

But she had no intention of asking, because she believed that she would get the answer soon.

As for the reason?

Very simple.

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center is actually located in the Stanford Research Park.

As one of the well-known technology companies in America, they were also the company that former Stanford President Fred Terman forced to come when he established the Stanford Industrial Park.

As long as there is Stanford endorsement, everyone can communicate.

Not to mention that now, she is showing the sign of the old principal...

"Mr. Jobs, Mr. Wozniak, you are back."

"Oh! Mr. Jones! Good morning!"

"Ms. Johnson? I didn't expect you to be here too. It's such an honor for us to have your attention on our Xerox products! Please come in. I'll take you to see the products..."

When the group entered Xerox's research center, the person in charge who received the news immediately came out to greet them. He was about 40 or 50 years old and at the moment he was smiling like a chrysanthemum and wanted to shake hands with everyone he met.

If I had to describe it, the attitude was like that of a tenant meeting a landlord.

Uh--

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this description.

After all, the land they are standing on belongs to Stanford, and the only person who can walk sideways in Stanford at the moment is the old man who basks in the sun on the campus every day.

After greeting him in a friendly manner, the group followed him upstairs.

After a series of twists and turns, they finally arrived at Xerox's computer research center. As the door opened, a computer more than half a person's height appeared in front of them.

Of course, everyone knows that computers are not the point.

What really catches the eye is the picture on the screen.

Unlike the currently popular black-background character interface, the interface displayed in the Xerox laboratory at this moment is bright white. There is no flashing cursor in the upper left corner of the screen, and no instructions for users to enter characters. Instead, there are three boxes arranged from left to right.

They take up the entire top of your computer screen.

Below them, there are two vertical frames about the size of a finger with various English words written in them. With a simple scan, you can tell that each word frame corresponds to a different function.

In addition to this, there is a tilted arrow on the screen.

It's a pure white cursor with a black border.

When this happened, Ethan and Evelyn's eyes widened.

Evelyn had never seen such a scene before, and Ethan...even though he had prepared himself mentally before coming, he was still very excited when he really saw the product that could change the world.

That is the beauty that you can touch with just raising your hand!
It is also a heart-warming experience that is within your reach!
Their surprise also made the head of Xerox laugh.

He walked quickly to the computer, then raised a palm-sized plastic box placed next to the computer and said, "Everyone - please allow me to interrupt your imagination -"

"Next, I will introduce to you our latest product developed by Xerox."

"First, please move your eyes to the palm of my hand."

“This palm-sized plastic box is also the key to my presentation today.”

"Because it was about the size of a mouse and had a wire connected to the computer, we simply named it Mouse, and after we had it..."

"This computer has come to life!"

Before he finished speaking, the head of Xerox started scratching the mouse on the table.

As he moved, the cursor on the computer screen began to shake.

Under his operation, the cursor and the mouse showed a high degree of consistency. When the head of Xerox slid the mouse to the left, the cursor on the screen moved quickly to the left. When he slid the mouse to the right, the cursor on the screen decisively changed direction and moved rapidly to the right.

Not only that, when the mouse stops, the cursor on the screen will also stop, and if you drag it up or down as a surprise attack, the cursor will follow instantly.

The extremely matched sensitivity seemed to make the two merge into one.

After walking around for a few times and making a brief demonstration, the head of Xerox smiled and said, "Although Mr. Jobs and Mr. Wozniak have already heard my story, since this is the first time for Mr. Jones and Ms. Johnson to come, I think it is necessary to explain our Xerox invention in detail again."

"Our invention is called the graphical user interface, and the idea is to make it possible for anyone in the world to learn how to use a computer, even if they have never been to school."

"The mouse just now represents the palm of an ordinary person's hand when using a computer in the future, and the icons on the screen that you see are what we can imagine, the changes that computers will bring to ordinary people..."

As he spoke, the Xerox official moved the cursor to the icon at the top left.

It was a black frame with a line of words underneath -

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).

Just by looking at the disordered letters, Ethan couldn't understand the meaning of this application at all.

But when the Xerox executive double-clicked the icon, a dialog box popped up...

The words Bravo and BRUNO made Ethan understand instantly, this seemed to be office!

The other party's actions also verified his guess.

Tap Bravo and a full page of text appears.

The crude version of the Word document made Ethan frown.

After hitting BRUNO, a large blank paper suddenly appeared in front of everyone.

That rough presentation made Ethan feel like he seemed to have seen the prototype of PowerPoint!
After waiting for the person in charge of Xerox to demonstrate the usage of Bravo and BRUNO respectively... Evelyn couldn't help but cry out "Oh My God" when she saw the laser typewriter type out texts when she pressed the enter key and connected to multiple synchronous monitors and the same display on different screens.

At this moment, Ethan was also surprised!

Although he already knew before coming here that what Steve Jobs discovered was the graphical user interface! But he never thought that Xerox had already made Office at this time! Everything they showed was clearly the most basic Windows!
And when Xerox had already made a prototype of Windows...

How can Bill Gates win?
Such doubts were like a dark cloud, hanging over Ethan's heart. After watching the actual demonstration of the person in charge of Xerox, Ethan let his sister talk about the surprise, while pulling Xiao Qiao aside and asked seriously: "Steve, tell me, what is going on?"

"Are you surprised? Are you shocked?"

Jobs said excitedly: "I have a hunch! The graphical user interface that Xerox is researching is the operating system of the future! We must get it! We must get it!"

"Oh—Steve! Calm the fuck down!"

Seeing that Jobs didn't answer the question, Ethan stretched out his hands, grabbed his shoulders, and said seriously: "I admit! Xerox's work shocked me! I also believe that your judgment is correct! But now my question is - what the hell is going on!"

"Why did you come to Xerox today?"

“Why would Xerox show you this stuff?”

"Isn't this their secret?"

“How come they have office software in their GUI?”

"I'm so confused now!"

The sudden question and continuous shaking almost made Xiao Qiao collapse.

But even so, he could hear Ethan's joy.

"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Jobs raised his hands and grabbed Ethan's arm, motioning him to stop shaking, and said, "Ethan, I know you're excited, and I'm excited too, so let's take it slow, okay? Where do you want me to start explaining?"

“Let’s start from when God created man!”

"Oh - that's going to be a very complicated matter - and this isn't the right place -"

"Then go back and tell me! Let's go!"

Although Ethan was very interested in the graphical user interface, he would not discuss any business with Xerox before figuring out the reason. He simply said hello to the person in charge of Xerox and let his sister and Wozniak stay in Xerox to ask questions. Then Ethan carried Jobs back to the company like an eagle catching a chick.

During this process, Xiao Qiao also organized the language of her narration.

As soon as he opened his mouth, it was a long, long time ago...

"Ethan, the last time we Apple launched a personal computer was two years ago. At that time, we showed the world the more mature Apple II."

"Last year, in 1978, our main product was an external floppy disk drive, and we did not launch any computer products. If we do not launch new products this year, we will be a computer company that has not launched any computer products for two consecutive years."

"Although this fact has little impact on us, because the Apple II still has great potential to be tapped, and the spreadsheet made by Microsoft can push its sales to new heights, but we are a computer company after all, right? Launching new computers is our job."

"So, since last year, Stephen and I have been thinking about what our next-generation product will be like. After some discussion, we all reached a consensus that we must launch a product that amazes the world, just like your Starfield."

"But we all know that this kind of product is not so easy to develop. If you want to shock the world, you must first shock yourself. But we have no inspiration, so the project has been shelved, and then..."

“Xerox found us.”

“They told us they had a really great idea and wanted us to come and taste it.”

"At first, Stephen and I were not interested in their proposal because Xerox's main business has always been printers, and their computer business was acquired. We didn't believe they had any good ideas. But when Xerox said that their inspiration would definitely shock the world, because they needed new profit growth points at the moment, we believed their words..."

"I think if it were you, you would do the same, right?"

"After all, Xerox swore by taking out their most proud product."

At this point, Steve Jobs stopped and looked at Ethan calmly.

The guy who was looking at him nodded silently.

For people decades later, Xerox is just a legendary company, but for people today, Xerox is simply invincible.

Because before 1976, Xerox had 100% market share in North America for copiers.

That's right.

Xerox has achieved a complete monopoly in the market for office consumer products.

One hundred percent monopoly.

Because they were the first company in the world to create an electrostatic flat-paper copier that was able to make photographic copies on ordinary uncoated paper.

Their far-leading technology allowed them to slaughter all their opponents.

But alas, the federation went crazy.

The Federal Trade Commission believes that Xerox's monopolistic behavior seriously interferes with the normal operation of the market.

So, starting in the early 1970s, they conducted an antitrust investigation into Xerox and decided in 1975 to force Xerox to disclose its patents and license them to all companies.

Then, starting in 1976, Xerox's share of the copier market plummeted, falling to less than 20 percent at the end of last year.

This situation caused Xerox's revenue to shrink suddenly, and in order to maintain the normal operation of the company and its stock price, they had to find a new source of revenue.

So, when Xerox came up with this kind of guarantee...

Anyone would believe that Xerox has something that will change the world.

Because they are so miserable.

"Is this why you are going to Xerox today?"

"Yes."

"And then? Did Xerox tell you why they developed the graphical user interface?"

"Yes." Steve Jobs was somewhat emotional when he mentioned this matter. "Steve had always told me that when Apple was on the right track, he would leave the company and go back to school."

"Because he felt that his knowledge reserves were not enough."

“Because he thinks there are so many things in the world, and there are many things worth learning.”

"Before, when I heard these words, I strongly opposed them."

"Although our Apple has not gone public, according to the current situation, our net worth has long been hundreds of millions. When all the professors in the university are not as rich as we are, what else can they teach us? I don't know! But this time, when those engineers from Xerox said that the graphical user interface had already had its prototype decades ago, I realized..."

"Stephen is right."

“Many times, the products that amaze the world have been inspired by ideas from decades ago.”

"The graphical user interface is very unfamiliar to us, but it should be very familiar to President Fred Terman because his basic model was proposed by Professor Vannevar."

"And now, because of the corresponding research, a large number of basic patents for graphical user interfaces are lying in the Stanford Research Institute..."

"WTF?" Ethan was shocked.

"What did you say?" He suspected that he had heard it wrongly.

Jobs laughed, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "I said, the graphical user interface is built using patents from the Stanford Research Institute. For example, the screen display, cursor mouse, and hypertext we just saw, the patents for these things are right under your feet..."

“Right at Stanford…”

"Ethan!"

"You can get it easily!"

"As long as Principal Fred Terman nods!"

“The future is ours!”

At this point, Jobs reached out and grabbed Ethan's shoulders.

His eyes were filled with fanaticism.

Note: ① What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) is the abbreviation of What You See Is What You Get. ② Xerox had already developed a text similar to Word in 1979, and the presentation BRUMO written in the article was launched by HP in . So it is no problem for Steve Jobs to say that Bill Gates can only copy. All the functions of Windows were copied, and even Xerox had completed all the integration in . ③ Xerox was knocked down by the antitrust bill, which is also one of the funniest cases in the history of US antitrust. According to Lao Mi’s idea, the collapse of Xerox would stimulate more local companies to develop crazily, but he did not expect that due to the manufacturing cost of copiers, all the market that Xerox vomited was snatched away by Japanese companies. This also made Lao Mi find that after globalization, allowing technology companies to have natural monopolies can better go overseas and realize technology colonization, or the new term "digital colonization" that has emerged in recent years. There are reasons for allowing technology companies to develop disorderly, and Lao Mi himself has suffered.

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(End of this chapter)