Subject: ?The Apple Mac turned 42 this weekend ? we are still using the WIMP GUI WYSIWYG computing paradigm in 2026?

How have things changed since the introduction of the first Apple Mac,
back on 24th January 1984? The subhead for this article <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/macos/the-apple-mac-turned-42-this-weekend-we-are-still-using-the-wimp-gui-wysiwyg-computing-paradigm-in-2026>
says ?Despite the best efforts of 3D, AR, XR, VR, voice interaction,
gesture controls, and BCIs, we are still clicking icons with mice and keyboards?.

To get the answer, it makes sense to look at the general computing
landscape back on that day, and compare with it now.

Notwithstanding that Xerox had pioneered the GUI somewhat before
Apple, most computing on 24th January was done via text interfaces,
either as terminals to remote computers, or to computers with built-in
screen and keyboard connections offering those text interfaces (i.e.
PCs). Those text interfaces took a variety of forms, some driven by
typing text commands, others by making selections from text menus, or
even some hybrid of the two.

And then there was Unix. That was not much appreciated at the time,
but its command-line interface was somewhat more powerful than that
available on those other systems.

In the years following 1984, Apple and Microsoft put a lot of effort
into persuading their users that the GUI was the way to go, that they
should abandon those fiddly text interfaces as clunky, troublesome,
and obsolete. To show how committed they were to the GUI idea, they
made the GUI feature a core, inseparable part of their very OS kernel.

The fact that the text interfaces on their particular platforms were
somewhat limited compared to what was available on bigger, more
expensive computers (including the Unix ones) did seem to back up
their case.

But then, something peculiar happened. Unix itself died, yet somehow
the spirit of Unix lived on, as Free Software (re)implementations of
its core concepts, in the form of Linux and the BSDs. Another
important Unix idea that they preserved was that the GUI should not be
a monolithic part of the OS, but a separate, modular, replaceable
layer. The user should have ?GUI freedom?, if you like: not just the
freedom to choose between GUIs, but also to have no GUI at all, if
they wanted.

And at the same time, all those clunky, alternative, proprietary
command lines have become extinct, and the superiority of the Unix way
has become much more evident.

The net result is nowadays, Microsoft is attempting to do some sort of
U-turn on its attitude to command lines. Unfortunately, it is hampered
somewhat by core design decisions taken in the early days of the
development of the Windows NT kernel.

And Apple? It managed to take some parts of the Unix idea, while
ignoring others. So while it gets to flaunt the official ?Unix??
trademark on its wares, its functionality does fall somewhat short, to
the extent that it, like Microsoft, is now subject to a bad case of
?Linux envy?, where they both have had to tack on support for actual
Linux kernels to their proprietary base OSes, in order to satisfy
customers? needs for Linux-style functionality.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)