PARC, founded in 1970 in Palo Alto as the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, became one of the most influential industrial laboratories in computing history. Created to pursue advanced research beyond Xerox’s copier business, it benefited from unusual freedom, strong ties to Stanford, and leadership by figures such as Bob Taylor. Its work helped shape laser printing, Ethernet, bitmap graphics, the graphical user interface, the desktop metaphor, the computer mouse, object-oriented programming, and the Alto personal computer. PARC’s ideas influenced the Xerox Star, Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh, and concepts later adopted by Apple and Microsoft, even as Xerox was criticized for not fully commercializing many breakthroughs.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain