The Story of the Xerox Alto

The Xerox Alto, developed at Xerox PARC in 1973, was arguably the most influential computer that almost nobody owned. While never sold commercially, this revolutionary machine introduced concepts that wouldn't reach mainstream computing for over a decade: a graphical user interface with windows and icons, a mouse for pointing and clicking, Ethernet networking, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processing. The Alto was so far ahead of its time that Xerox leadership couldn't envision a market for it.

The Alto emerged from Xerox PARC's remarkable concentration of talent and resources in the early 1970s. Researchers were given freedom to imagine the office of the future, resulting in a machine that cost over $30,000 to build (roughly $180,000 in today's dollars) but demonstrated nearly every element of modern personal computing. Its bitmapped display could show graphics and multiple fonts, revolutionary when most computers still used character-based terminals.

The famous story of Steve Jobs' visit to Xerox PARC in 1979 has become Silicon Valley legend. Shown the Alto in exchange for Xerox investing in Apple, Jobs immediately grasped its potential. "It was like a veil being lifted from my eyes," he later said. The visit directly inspired the Apple Lisa and Macintosh, which brought GUI computing to the masses. Bill Gates similarly drew inspiration, leading to Microsoft Windows.

Xerox's failure to capitalize on the Alto has become a cautionary tale about innovation without business vision. The company saw itself as a copier manufacturer, not a computer company, and couldn't imagine offices full of $30,000 computers. By the time the market was ready, Apple and Microsoft had seized the opportunity. The Alto's legacy isn't just in the technologies it pioneered but in the lesson it teaches: breakthrough innovation requires not just technical vision but the business courage to pursue it.