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Xerox Alive

Xerox
KindCompany
Founded1906
StatusAlive
FoundersJoseph C. Wilson
FieldDocument technology
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

The copier company that founded PARC, invented the future of computing there, and famously declined to keep it.

Created Xerox PARC Xerox Star

The Haloid Photographic Company licensed Chester Carlson's xerography in 1947, shipped the 914 copier in 1959, and became one of America's most profitable companies — 'Xerox' became the verb.

In 1970 it founded PARC to secure its digital future; PARC invented the Alto, Ethernet, laser printing, the GUI, and object-oriented programming — and Xerox sold copiers. The legend of squandered invention is partly myth (the Star sold; Ethernet and laser printing made billions) but mostly true.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/
  2. xerox.com/