Retrotechnology Media - Typewritten Software

1983 • 640 × 400 PNG (6 KB) VisiCorp Visi On Screen capture: Turbo XT Clone — Visi On 1.0 This screenshot has been line-doubled to correct its aspect ratio, so it appears here as it does on the system monitor. 1984 • 1152 × 900 PNG (66 KB) SunTools desktop Screen capture: Sun 2/120 — SunOS 1.1 1984 • 1152 × 900 PNG (41 KB) SunTools desktop Screen capture: Sun 2/120 — SunOS 1.1 1985 • 512 × 256 PNG (6 KB) HP Integral PC Screen capture: HP Integral PC — HP-UX 5.0/RO, with additional tools and applications running from attached 7946A. 1985 • 1152 × 900 PNG (29 KB) SunTools desktop Screen capture: Sun 2/50 — SunOS 2.0 1985 • 320 × 200 GIF (7 KB) IBM 4-Color CGA Graphics Screen capture: IBM PC video game ('Alleycat') 1985 • 640 × 350 PNG (5 KB) GEM Desktop 1.2 Screen capture: GEM Desktop 1.2 in 16-color EGA mode. This version of GEM for the IBM PC was the last to be released before Apple prevailed against DRI in its seminal "look and feel" lawsuit. 1985 • 640 × 350 PNG (8 KB) GEM Draw 1.0 Screen capture: GEM Draw 1.0 in 16-color EGA mode, with sample drawing loaded. Along with GEM Write and GEM Paint, GEM Draw was among the first applications available at the premiere of GEM Desktop on the IBM PC.

1987 • 640 × 512 PNG (8 KB) Arthur 0.30 Screen capture: Acorn Archimedes A310 — Arthur 0.30 Desktop, with sample desk accessories running. The red window frame doesn't indicate the active window, but rather that there is unsaved data in the Note-Pad desk accessory. 1987 • 640 × 512 PNG (8 KB) Arthur 1.20 Screen capture: Acorn Archimedes A440 — Arthur 1.20 Desktop, with sample desk accessories running. Arthur 0.30 lasted barely more than three months before being replaced by Arthur 1.20. The system is still very rudimentary, but if you squint, you can see some maturity just beginning to happen. 1987 • 640 × 400 PNG (61 KB) NewTek Digi-Paint Screen capture: Amiga 2000 running NewTek Digi-Paint with sample image loaded. Digi-Paint was one of the first paint programs to make use of the Amiga's 4096-color HAM display modes. This demo image included with the program was probably digitized using NewTek's earlier product, Digi-View. On the surface it seems a somewhat odd choice, as HAM provides no benefit to a grayscale image. Digi-Paint also takes full advantage of the Amiga's ability to define multiple logical screens, which may be displayed on the monitor simultaneously. The individual screens are as follows, and have each been modified as described so the composited image depicts how the program actually appears on the system monitor: Canvas — 320 × 400 pixel, 4096 color HAM6. - capture has been line-doubled in the horizontal dimension. Menu — 640 × 200 pixel, 4 color. - capture has been line-doubled in the vertical dimension. Tool palette — 320 × 200 pixel, 4096 color HAM6. -

capture has been doubled in both dimensions. 1987 • 1025 × 864 PNG (20 KB) VAX Workstation Software (VWS) Screen capture: DEC VAXstation 2000 with 8-plane GPX graphics, running DEC VWS 3.3 (UIS) under MicroVMS 4.6, with configuration menu, help, and VT200 emulator windows open. In the early days of the VAX workstation, VWS (also known as UIS) was the graphical interface available to VMS users. There is a VT200 emulator (with and without support for ReGIS graphics), a Tektronix 4014 emulator, and not much else besides. The default background on color displays is 50% gray (I fiddled with it to make it purple). 1987 • 801 × 601 PNG (16 KB) GEM – Xerox Ventura Publisher 1.1 Screen capture: Xerox Ventura Publisher 1.1 on Renaissance GRX Rendition-I display adapter, with sample document loaded. Ventura Publisher was one of a few early PC software packages intended to demonstrate that the burgeoning desktop publishing industry wasn't to be the exclusive demesne of the Macintosh. It was a serious enough contender to have inspired development and driven adoption of an early round of first-generation high resolution display systems for the PC, of which the Rendition was among the better-rounded. Eventually, Ventura Publisher would be re-written to run on Microsoft Windows, but it was originally written for DRI's GEM environment, as shown here. 1987 • 1024 × 768 PNG (57 KB) IRIS Multiple Exposure (mex) Screen capture: SGI IRIS 3130 — GL2-W3.6 with sample mex tools running.

1987 • 1152 × 900 PNG (28 KB) SunTools desktop Screen capture: Sun 3/60 — SunOS 3.5 1987 • 1152 × 900 PNG (36 KB) Frame Maker 1.0 Screen capture: Sun 3/60 — SunOS 3.5 1988 • 960 × 768 PNG (17 KB) RISC OS 2.00 Screen capture: Acorn Archimedes A440 showing the RISC OS 2.00 desktop with applications running. The Acorn VIDC has been programmed for a non-standard, 960 × 384 pixel, 16-color display mode using the !NewModes module. This screenshot has been line-doubled to correct its aspect ratio, so it appears here as it does on the system monitor. 1988 • 640 × 480 PNG (6 KB) GEM Desktop 3.0 Screen capture: GEM Desktop 3.0 in 16-color VGA mode. This is what happened to GEM after Apple prevailed against DRI in its seminal "look and feel" lawsuit. Icons on the desktop (including a Trash can) and up to four overlapping windows replaced by two fixed, tiled windows, arranged as you see here. Either window can be "maximized" so it occupies the entire display, but neither can be otherwise resized or moved. Lame. 1988 • 640 × 480 PNG (13 KB) GEM Paint 2.01 Screen capture: GEM Paint 2.01 in 16-color VGA mode, with sample drawing loaded. 1988 • 1024 × 768 PNG (18 KB) OS/2 Presentation Manager Screen capture: OS/2 1.1 Extended Edition on 8514/A display, showing control panel and OS/2 command prompt window.

1988 • 1024 × 512 PNG (21 KB) Windows/286 Presentation Manager Screen capture: Compaq Deskpro 286 & Renaissance GRX Rendition-I — Windows/286 2.1, showing Aldus Pagemaker 3.0 and Corel Draw 1.10 in 64 colors under Presentation Manager. The aspect ratio of this screenshot has not been corrected. It appears here one-third shorter than it does on the screen (the thumbnail image at left shows the correct aspect ratio). 1988 • 1024 × 768 PNG (11 KB) HP NewWave Office Screen capture: HP NewWave Office version A.01.00 on 8514/A display adapter — an object-oriented desktop for Windows 2.1 1988 • 1024 × 768 PNG (12 KB) AIX 2.2.1 Screen capture: IBM 6150 RT PC with Extended Monochrome Display, showing AIXwm & AIXterm. 1988 • 1152 × 900 PNG (46 KB) Network Extensible Window System Screen capture: Sun 3/60 — SunOS 3.5, showing unbundled NeWS environment. Though SunView emulation is provided so the standard SunOS SunView applications will work, the display server is Postscript only. This predates the merged NeWS + X11 display server from the early OpenWindows releases. 1988 • 1152 × 900 PNG (28 KB) SunView Screen capture: Sun 386i/250 — SunOS 4.0.2, showing SunView interface with DOS PC session active. 1988 • 1024 × 864 PNG (24 KB) ULTRIX Worksystem Software (UWS) Screen capture: DEC VAXstation 2000 with 8-plane GPX graphics, running UWS 1.1 (ULTRIX 2.2-1 plus X10R4), with xclock, xcolors, xmh, and xterms running.

The title bars on xterm are not provided by the window manager; xwm itself does not draw any windows. Window operations are performed by holding down meta keys on the keyboard while clicking the various mouse buttons. 1988 • 1149 × 861 PNG (21 KB) Xerox Viewpoint 2.0 Screen capture: Xerox 6085 with optional PCE board, showing Viewpoint 2.0 desktop and running PC Emulator. 1989 • 1024 × 768 PNG (614 KB) Media Logic Artisan Screen capture: SGI IRIS 3130 — GL2-W3.6, showing the Media Logic Artisan paint program. 1989 • 1152 × 900 PNG (36 KB) SunPaint 1.0 Screen capture: Sun 3/60 — SunOS 3.5, showing OPEN LOOK interface on SunView. 1989 • 1152 × 900 PNG (36 KB) SunWrite 1.0 Screen capture: Sun 3/60 — SunOS 3.5, showing OPEN LOOK interface on SunView. 1989 • 1152 × 900 PNG (48 KB) OpenWindows 1.0 Pre-FCS Screen capture: Sun 4/110 — SunOS 4.0.3, showing prerelease version of unbundled OpenWindows environment. 1989 • 1280 × 1024 PNG (38 KB) OS/2 Presentation Manager Screen capture: IBM PS/2 8580-311 & Image Adapter/A — OS/2 1.2 Extended Edition, showing Aldus Pagemaker under Presentation Manager. 1989 • 1024 × 768 GIF (48 KB) Windows/386 Presentation Manager Screen capture: Compaq Deskpro 386 & Western Digital Paradise 8514/A+ — Windows/386 2.11, showing Aldus Pagemaker 3.0 and Corel Draw 1.10 in 256 colors under Presentation Manager.

When the display offers more than 16 colors, Windows 2.1 implements its color palette as if it were a direct-color visual. With 256 colors, there is a wrinkle: eight bits of color depth can't be evenly divided between three primary colors and so blue draws the short straw (RRRGGGBB). This causes certain screen elements which should appear in neutral gray to have a brown or violet tint. The effect is quite apparent when comparing against the 64-color (RRGGBB) Rendition-I screenshot above or the 256-color Windows 3.0 and OS/2 2.1 screenshots below (color gradient fills preview as grayscale in Corel Draw 1.x). 1989 • 1120 × 832 PNG (49 KB) NeXTstep 1.0 Screen capture: NeXT computer showing Workspace Manager, original Column Browser & sample applications. 1989 • 1024 × 768 PNG (27 KB) SCO OpenDesktop 1.0.0y Screen capture: Compaq Deskpro 386/25 with Orchid ProDesigner Plus VGA and SCO OpenDesktop 1.0.0y, showing the Locus Computing Xhibit 1.0 desktop in 16 colors on the Locus Xsight (X11R3) server with manual page, editor, UNIX shell, and file browser with context-sensitive pop-up menu active. I had understood that the very earliest versions of OpenDesktop had used an X11 desktop environment other than IXI X.desktop. In fact it does use Locus' Xhibit, but this product is itself a rebranded X.desktop. 1990 • 1024 × 864 PNG (32 KB) DECwindows (Ultrix) Screen capture: DECstation 3100 showing DECwindows on Ultrix 4.0, with DECterm displaying sixel graphics and clock windows open.

1990 • 1024 × 768 PNG (25 KB) IBM Academic Operating System Screen capture: IBM 6152 Academic System ("Crossbow") — AOS/4.3, showing X11R4 environment on the 8514/A display adapter AOS/4.3 was originally released with X11R2, but there were so many serious bugs in X11 on the RT platform that it amounted to little more than an exercise in massive frustration until X11R4, eighteen months later. X11R4 also introduced the twm window manager (replacing uwm) and the XSHAPE extension, demonstrated here by the xeyes and oclock applications. 1990 • 1152 × 870 PNG (19 KB) A/UX 2.0.1 Screen capture: Macintosh IIci, showing the A/UX Finder and command shell. 1990 • 1152 × 900 PNG (26 KB) RISC iX 1.21 Screen capture: Acorn Archimedes A440/1, showing the RISC iX X.desktop in an MIT X11 session. The 1.2 release of Acorn RISC iX has been substantially enhanced over earlier versions. Unfortunately, the A440/1 (actually an A410/1 with a full complement of RAM fitted) struggles to cope with the enlarged system. The machine is functionally identical to the official R140 model, but with its 8 MHz ARM2, maximum of 4 MB RAM, 32 KB page size, and memory-bandwidth-stealing framebuffer, the performance situation is shocking. Upon starting X11, the user is invited to select either an MIT or a Motif session. Selecting Motif, however, causes things to go from "dire" to "apocalyptic". 1990 • 1016 × 768 PNG (12 KB) TI microExplorer Screen capture: microExplorer for the Macintosh II version 6.09, showing Lisp boot and initial user login.