|  | 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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|  | New set of posters with mouse pointers:
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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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|  |  | This successor to consumer branch of Windows 2000 line brought many GUI changes, such as introduction of appearance theme manager and new Luna interface, task menus, bigger and more colourful icons, and sub-pixel font smoothing for LCD screens.
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|  |  | This is how four selected editions of Windows (1.01, 3.1, 95 and XP Professional) look while launching. Check out how different versions of Windows and other GUIs say “coming right up!”
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|  |  | “It promised to take the work out of work. The personal computer courted you with endless promises. It would do your job faster, make life easier, send you home happier. It would do the heavy lifting, you would do the heavy thinking. Alas, reality fell short of the dream.” That’s the beginning of a 20-year-old advertisement of Visi On, a commercial GUI for PCs predating both Mac OS and Windows. If this fragment still rings true, check out the rest of the ad.
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