Welcome to guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them. Site last updated on 6th October 2006: two articles about Xerox: “Xerox xooms toward the office of the future” and “The lab that ran away from Xerox”, and a funny essay about... the cow metaphor Check out exclusive posters commemorating various obsolete GUI elements and applications: The original trash can for Apple Lisa was supposed to have been an old, beat up alley trashcan, with the lid half open, flies buzzing around it and appropriate sounds as user put something inside. This internal alpha release of Windows XP, still codenamed Whistler, had some unique features – most notably toned-down Watercolor visual style, unique icons in Control Panel, and the first version of the new Start menu. 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. From 32×32 to 128×128 pixels, from symbols to photorealistic images, from jagged edges to full 8-bit transparency. Mac OS X redefined the icons, although many people wonder if the old definition was really that bad. What do you think? Compare the Mac OS X icons with the other GUIs on one of the icon charts.
	Copyright © 2002-2006 Marcin Wichary.