Xerox Star

The Xerox Star, officially known as the 8010, was a revolutionary computer workstation released as a commercial product in 1981. The Star workstation was based on a prototype machine known as Xerox Dandelion, a non-commercial computer based on the Lisp programming language. The Star was developed at the famous Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

The Xerox Star was actually not originally meant to be a stand-alone computer, but was part of an integrated Xerox "personal office system" that also connected to other workstations via Ethernet and an optional laser printer. The Xerox Star was the first commercial computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) with the familiar desktop with icons metaphor and a mouse.

The Xerox Star, like virtually all products developed at Xerox PARC, was a commercial failure but a trip to Xerox PARC by Apple Computer's Steve Jobs led to the GUI and mouse being integrated into the Apple Lisa and, later, the first Apple Macintosh. The Star was succeeded by the Xerox 6085 workstation.