|  | Welcome to guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them.
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|  | Site last updated on 6th October 2006:
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|  | Three of 14 posters for Macintosh’s 20th birthday present its groundbreaking GUI:
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|  | Contemporary Mac OS X has more in common with NeXTSTEP than with classic Mac OS. When it was obvious that classic Mac OS design has limitation which cannot be overcome, and after several failed internal replacement projects at Apple (including the infamous Copland), the company started looking outside. When it was almost certain that BeOS will serve as a framework for the new OS, Apple surprised everyone by buying out NeXT, Inc., and using their operating system. BeOS was allegedly too limited (it couldn’t even print!) and too expensive. OS/2 and Windows NT were also considered alternatives, as both had PowerPC versions at the time. |
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|  |  | BeOS R5 was the last release of this interesting multimedia operating system before Be, Inc. went out of business. BeOS sports an interesting, very responsive GUI, which is refreshing, even if a little bit underdone.
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|  |  | It’s kind of funny how Microsoft tries to convince you that the new operating system is worth your money after you already bought it. Check out and compare all the marketese that is shown during installation in Windows and other GUIs.
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|  |  | The icons for clock usually show some fixed hours, such as 3 PM in Windows 3.x and five past five in OS/2 Warp. This icon, from Windows 1.0, is an exception and always shows the current system time.
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