The History of the Desktop

Nothing shapes our understanding and presception of how a computer works more than the metaphors that are being used in the graphical user interface (GUI). Move your documents to the trash bin to delete them. The documents are stored in folders, folders can be copied or moved about your desktop, on the desktop there is a notepad or a pen, representing a wordprocessing software, wherein you have a paper-clip, that talks to you and helps you getting on, and so on.

The history of how these metaphors developed is not less interesting than all the unsuccessful attemts that have been taken during this process. Find a considerably collection of GUIs in the GUI Gallery.