The GNU Project started over 40 years ago. With the passing of time things have changed and nowadays many young people are not aware what computing was like in the 1980s.
I decided to make a list of notable events in that period to help put things into perspective. 1978? Xerox 9700 laser printer installed in MIT AI Labs - no source code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_9700 17 October 1979 Spreadsheet program VisiCalc released Late 1979 Steve Jobs visits Xerox PARC, decides to develop computer with bitmap screen, GUI, icons, mouse. 1980 RMS visits Carnegie Mellon University request for laser printer source code refused 1980 "The Third Wave" by Alvin Toffler published November 1980 IBM signs contract with Microsoft on IBM PC operating system 21 August 1981 IBM PC released 1981 Japan surpassses US in DRAM production - producers believe they've obtained control of the crucial component of the information age 24 February 1982 Sun Microsystems founded December 1982 Adobe founded 19 January 1983 Apple Lisa released (first GUI-based mass-marketed PC) 26 January 1983 Lotus 1-2-3 released July 1983 Nintendo Family Computer released (in Japan) 27 September 1983 GNU project announced - development starts January 1984 January 1984 AT&T breakup - AT&T enters computer business 24 January 1984 Apple Machintosh released 20 March 1985 GNU Emacs released May 1985 GNU Manifesto announced 20 November 1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 released --- I'd like to hear your opinions. I'd like to get information on MIT AI Labs ICT and the Xerox laser printer. Akira Urushibata _______________________________________________ libreplanet-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
