@walter0bz The Xerox Star 8010 came with a 40 megabyte 8" HD also available with a 80 megabyte HD, usually manufactured by Quantum and a 8" Floppy disc drive for moving files and installing software. Memory RAM compliment was up to 1.5 megabytes. RAM chips were incredibly expensive during this time so "virtual memory" using a portion of the HD as a scratch pad so to speak.
@Xerox6085I -the geek joke is, old computers came with LP-Rom drives instead of the CD-Roms/DVD-drives that kids today take for granted.
but I have a great appreciation for the old machines that pioneered everything. Interesting to see how gui's continued to evolve from this start. i've never liked windows style of menu bars, i think this machine used popup menus all the time ? (which steve went back to for NeXTStep?). and i'm seeing how OSX lion (a bit schizoid) wants to get rid of the menubar
@walter0bz It was late when I replied, after reading it again and seeing LP I realized what you meant. If you search for the Xerox 6085 or go to Digibarn dot com and look it up, you can see it better. The 8010, 6085-I, 6085-II running Viewpoint and later renamed Global View have a "general" information and menu bar along the top of the screen which Apple later 'cough, choke' "borrowed" and used on the SE series. Everything else has "properties" access via a right click on an icon.
@walter0bz There were also versions of Global View which worked on a PC running win95 or win98 in color. Also there were versions of the software which ran on a Sun Sparc workstation, aka 6520 and 6540. The 6085-1 had a 80 meg hd, the 6085-II cane with a 100 meg hd and was if I remember right, 40% faster across the board. With a 100 meg HD the system could hold about 135K pages as it was referred to. Truly a great piece of equipment that would ALWAYS recover from a crash.
@Xerox6085I now i have to ask you this, how do you remember these detailed parameters? i can hardly remember specs from computers,only if i worked on these machines long enough or machines that are quiet popular like the 5150
@Serpico261 Well.... I was trained at Xerox in 1989, worked as a temp in various offices including USMG Xerox Centre I & II. I also worked in the software testing lab during that time, on a project known as "Pacifica". It was software built from the Xerox Publishing Illustrator Workstation to draw chemical compounds in a desktop publishing environment. It was for Squibb Inc. Unfortunately the program had many problems, it was sent back for re-evaluation and my job ended. This was just ...
@Serpico261 the huge down turn in business all over in late 1989. Big layoffs everywhere, and a hiring freeze for temps, long term temps and permanent employees. Things were never the same at Xerox. Now both Xerox Center I (US Marketing Group) and Xerox Centre II in El Segundo California are both gone. I remember helping VPs with documents they were composing! When a product is built well and SMART, and it makes sense to a person that "this is the right way", you remember. Also I have ...
@Serpico261 a full set of Xerox VP 2.0 Reference, and training manuals which were given to me when a friend's department was getting rid of everything. All the Xerox workstations were bought by EDS, in lieu of replacement with PCs running "ugh" MS Win 3.11. The basics I remember, the details I would have to look up. Xerox also had weekly meetings for all employees to fill everyone in on current products and so on. It was the one play I felt as if I made a difference.
@jebug29 this is a question that i asked myself many times...but you see sometimes its just a simple detail like one person that should had pushed xerox into the market for computer with GUIs, but apperantly there was no force for that. well apple did it, the engineers to be exactly. They manage to transfer this GUI concept into a general purpose cpu....this is not a trivial job
@jebug29 At the time Xerox was in competition with itself, the push to sell time sharing on a main frame, the Xerox 860ips which came out of Texas and the Rochester attitude which said "we are a copier company".
did it come with an LP-ROM drive
walter0bz 9 months ago
@walter0bz The Xerox Star 8010 came with a 40 megabyte 8" HD also available with a 80 megabyte HD, usually manufactured by Quantum and a 8" Floppy disc drive for moving files and installing software. Memory RAM compliment was up to 1.5 megabytes. RAM chips were incredibly expensive during this time so "virtual memory" using a portion of the HD as a scratch pad so to speak.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@Xerox6085I -the geek joke is, old computers came with LP-Rom drives instead of the CD-Roms/DVD-drives that kids today take for granted.
but I have a great appreciation for the old machines that pioneered everything. Interesting to see how gui's continued to evolve from this start. i've never liked windows style of menu bars, i think this machine used popup menus all the time ? (which steve went back to for NeXTStep?). and i'm seeing how OSX lion (a bit schizoid) wants to get rid of the menubar
walter0bz 4 months ago
@walter0bz It was late when I replied, after reading it again and seeing LP I realized what you meant. If you search for the Xerox 6085 or go to Digibarn dot com and look it up, you can see it better. The 8010, 6085-I, 6085-II running Viewpoint and later renamed Global View have a "general" information and menu bar along the top of the screen which Apple later 'cough, choke' "borrowed" and used on the SE series. Everything else has "properties" access via a right click on an icon.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@walter0bz There were also versions of Global View which worked on a PC running win95 or win98 in color. Also there were versions of the software which ran on a Sun Sparc workstation, aka 6520 and 6540. The 6085-1 had a 80 meg hd, the 6085-II cane with a 100 meg hd and was if I remember right, 40% faster across the board. With a 100 meg HD the system could hold about 135K pages as it was referred to. Truly a great piece of equipment that would ALWAYS recover from a crash.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@Xerox6085I now i have to ask you this, how do you remember these detailed parameters? i can hardly remember specs from computers,only if i worked on these machines long enough or machines that are quiet popular like the 5150
Serpico261 4 months ago
@Serpico261 Well.... I was trained at Xerox in 1989, worked as a temp in various offices including USMG Xerox Centre I & II. I also worked in the software testing lab during that time, on a project known as "Pacifica". It was software built from the Xerox Publishing Illustrator Workstation to draw chemical compounds in a desktop publishing environment. It was for Squibb Inc. Unfortunately the program had many problems, it was sent back for re-evaluation and my job ended. This was just ...
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@Serpico261 the huge down turn in business all over in late 1989. Big layoffs everywhere, and a hiring freeze for temps, long term temps and permanent employees. Things were never the same at Xerox. Now both Xerox Center I (US Marketing Group) and Xerox Centre II in El Segundo California are both gone. I remember helping VPs with documents they were composing! When a product is built well and SMART, and it makes sense to a person that "this is the right way", you remember. Also I have ...
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@Serpico261 a full set of Xerox VP 2.0 Reference, and training manuals which were given to me when a friend's department was getting rid of everything. All the Xerox workstations were bought by EDS, in lieu of replacement with PCs running "ugh" MS Win 3.11. The basics I remember, the details I would have to look up. Xerox also had weekly meetings for all employees to fill everyone in on current products and so on. It was the one play I felt as if I made a difference.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
Search Xerox alto it's crazy.
loafmasta87 1 year ago
I thought the Alto was the first Xerox GUI system? Like early 70's
loafmasta87 1 year ago
@loafmasta87 It was and it wasn't, it was used advanced word processing software but it did not have icons per say like Xerox Star.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
Xerox should've kept making computers and operating systems. I would be interested to see what their current GUI would look like.
jebug29 1 year ago 5
@jebug29 this is a question that i asked myself many times...but you see sometimes its just a simple detail like one person that should had pushed xerox into the market for computer with GUIs, but apperantly there was no force for that. well apple did it, the engineers to be exactly. They manage to transfer this GUI concept into a general purpose cpu....this is not a trivial job
Serpico261 1 year ago 5
@Serpico261 then yay apple! lol
jebug29 1 year ago
@Serpico261 they did, GVWIN for the PC, ran on a 486 machine.
Xerox6085I 4 months ago
@jebug29 At the time Xerox was in competition with itself, the push to sell time sharing on a main frame, the Xerox 860ips which came out of Texas and the Rochester attitude which said "we are a copier company".
Xerox6085I 4 months ago