Xerox(PARC) + MAC = WINDOWS.


This is a widely circulated story.. part fact,part fiction all action about how the Windows operating system was developed.
I thought that most people would be knowing about this but was surprised at how few actually did.
But first. Legal Disclaimer: I disavow all responsibilty towards the accuracy of this post.

So here goes...

Xerox had a research centre in Palo Alto where revolutionary new ideas were borne --> menu driven interfaces, the beginnings of the GUI we use today.
Jobs of Apple working along with people from the Xerox(PARC) developed the Mac user interface.
But obviously an interface on its own wasn't of much use.It needed some applications.Jobs had heard of Redmont,Washingtonbased company , Microsoft, which had recently gained prominence through their development of the Disk Operating System.

He hired them to develop applications for the Mac.Microsoft developed the applications but also managed to wrangle licences to certain features of the Mac UI.( Core competency anyone :-) ). Later on they incorporated more and more of the Mac features and voila.. we had WINDOWS.
It is believed that Jobs lost the court case due to those licenses.
Incidentally,Microsoft is also accused of copying DOS...