Computer Retrospectives – How the Operating System came to be
by ZACH HOPE
Many young people nowadays take for granted the mouse based operating systems that have been the standard since the 1980s. The mouse is the main step forward that I can remember in the evolution of the PC. When I was a kid, the personal computers that everyone wished they had were the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The Commodores were basically bulky keyboards that connected into your television, and a tape recorder to store and load data, programs, or games. You could hardly refer to it as an operating system; there wasn’t even a mouse and it was totally different to Windows XP or Mac OS 9. When you got a game for these early home computers, on the reverse of the case it had instructions on the painfully slow loading procedure. I can’t really remember, but I think you had to type in “Run” or something and press play.
The Introduction of the Pointing Device
My first memories of trying out a trackball were when using a Commodore Amiga 500 – one of the most desirable gaming PCs of the mid to late 80s. The Commodore Amiga did have a primitive operating system but it was capable of displaying only a few colours and overall it looked pretty rubbish. Then again, this was the first step away from having to be able to code to operate a computer. The mouse is much more instinctive than typing computer code and played a crucial part in helping to grow the home computing market.
Whist at University, a buddy of mine passed on a fascinating anecdote about the invention of the mouse. His father was an employee at Xerox and had maintained the group was the originator of the mouse. Then Steve Jobs saw the contraption and included it into his Apple computers. I don’t know what sort of legal wrangling arose, but the intellectual property for the mouse has to be up there with the most well-paid ever conceived. There must have been tons and tons of the gadgets manufactured.
The launch of the mouse can be considered the dawn of the operating system as it appears today. Microsoft launched Windows 3.1 which was very ugly even in those days. Apple’s OS 7 was a lot more good looking and simpler to use. The problem was that the programs on Windows were in fact suited to corporate use. The Apple computer was meant for the artistic inclined marketplace – becoming the operating system for computer art, and graphic design. The two OSs were complete opposites, you couldn’t even exchange a floppy disk between them, they had their own printers, and you could forget about networking them. Step by step over the next 20 years the disparity was reduced, and in 2006 Apple systems started to use Intel processors so they were even able to run Windows. Nobody saw that coming.
Microsoft Windows has always been playing catch-up to Mac OS when it comes to aesthetics. Even with Vista, a lot of people would still rather have OS X Leopard – but that might just be to do with Bill Gates taste.
What the Future Holds
Looking towards the upcoming gadgets of tomorrow, there are some very promising avenues for innovative input devices. The mouse became the ground breaking contraption for operating systems in the 80s, and in 2007 the touch screen could well follow in it’s footsteps. The iPhone doesn’t need mice, trackballs, and keyboards, because it has swapped them with a touch screen. Although typing is a little tricky with no sensation of a key press, it has forged new territory in the advancement of the operating system. It has much superior portability and handiness – something that is certainly going to get better and better in forthcoming years. ComputerGuruZach is the author of Speed-Up-Windows-XP.com, a site that can teach you how to speed up computer . Instead of complaining, “why is my computer slow”, you can breathe new life into XP slow startup PCs.
