Xerox designed the Alto’s user interface around the three-button mouse that sits in front of its keyboard. The disk drive at the top of the cabinet takes a removable 2.5 megabyte cartridge.

In 1972, Xerox released an advert for the Alto, introducing people to the world’s first computer with a graphical user interface, mouse, and distinctive portrait screen.

A restored Xerox Alto at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle. (Via Living Computer Museum) A decades-old machine that inspired Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others on the path to ...

Living Computer Museum restores Xerox Alto and debuts new emulator Devin Coldewey 11:58 AM PDT · August 2, 2016 ...

The Xerox Alto, pictured above, produced only 2,000 units. Apple, by contrast, sold 100,000 Lisa computers. The Xerox Alto, pictured above, produced only 2,000 units ...

According to the Computer History Museum, Thacker later recalled that the first Xerox Alto cost $12,000 to build, and would have probably been priced at $40,000 if it had gone on sale to the public.

Charles ‘Chuck’ Thacker, lead designer of the Xerox Alto (below), has died at the age of 74, reports Communications. The Alto, launched in 1973, was the first ever computer based on a ...