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Comment by adrianmonk

> The graphical operating system that could have been for the IBM XT

Visi On[1] was a graphical operating system for the IBM PC that actually existed as a commercial product, though definitely not a very successful one. It was made by VisiCorp, the same company that created VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet for a personal computer).

It was demoed at COMDEX in 1982, before the Apple Lisa was released. It came out after the Lisa but slightly before the Macintosh.

Here's their promotional video from 1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc4wFeVvKTI

Fun fact: Bill Gates saw the demo at COMDEX, and at first he was skeptical that it was really running on an IBM PC. But ultimately he was so impressed he decided[2] to start developing a product called Microsoft Windows.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visi_On

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0

parent adrianmonk 2 months ago

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