No, to your belief it wasn't the Macintosh, and it was a decade early. #XeroxAlto
The 1970s have hit the computer industry and new companies in the names of Apple, Commodore, and Tandy have already been messing with the idea of computers the size of rooms just in the size of a desk. The Apple II, the Commodore PET (call it cute, if you will), and the Tandy TRS-80 were ruling the new market of Microcomputers (we don't call them that anymore, but that's the official name of Computers in our desks) as well as the new Computers-At-Home Market, which was ruled by Commodore's VIC-20 and later the Commodore 64.
However, deep in that history of first computers to ever exist, a printers company in the name of Xerox (still makes printers to this day) had an idea. You see, in 1964, a mystery new device came out in the name of a Computer Mouse. It was so new, nobody used it! However, Xerox saw an opportunity "If the mouse is new and nobody uses it, let's be the first to do so!" people in Xerox probably said.
Additionally to that, the mouse had to be used in some form together with the software. Back in 1973 (when the Alto came out), the Operating Systems worked in a method unknown to people today, called Disk Operating System. What is that, you say? Ok, here's the deal:
Disk Operating Systems (aka DOS)
A Disk Operating System used to work with a Disk, hence the name. In the 70s, when it was used for the first time in a Microcomputer, it was used with Floppy Disks. If you just booted an Apple II, let's give an example, without a Floppy Disk containing Apple DOS, it would boot to nothing, and would not be usable unless you had the disk inside. DOS later became something you could install in a hard drive, and there were so many competitors, at least in the beginning. MSDOS, Apple DOS, CP/M, as well as some less popular ones.
However, one thing they had in common can be said in one word: confusing. Why? Well, if you wanted to send something to someone you had to first write, send email to BlahBlah then press enter. Then, if you wanted to find her reply, it would not appear at first, you would have to do:
Open email, enter
Open inbox, enter
Open BlahBlah.email'sfile, enter
Open Reply.email'sfile, enter
And this continues for no matter how much you have to open. And yes, no mouse, no windows or tabs, no multitasking, no taskbar, no start menu, no way to switch tabs unless you want to close the current one, no notifications, no AutoPlay installations, no desktop, no file manager (everything has to be opened by the same method as you saw), and the list of stuff is endless. Today's computers are nothing like DOS. If you thought that Windows and Mac OS were the beginning of computer OSes, yeah, you have no idea about DOS.
The guys at Xerox saw the potential a mouse had, and were like:
"The system sucks, let's make it better and more easy to use."
By the way, that's how science works. Fixing things that suck and improving with the current tools, or even inventing new tools.
Graphic User Interface
What's that, you say? This sounds confusing, you say? Actually, you are using a GUI right now! Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are GUIs. A GUI is basically a Operating System that is not like DOS in the way that it requires so much manual action from a keyboard to do basic tasks. In a GUI, you can use a mouse for everything, you can have a lot of tabs open and flick between them, you can save tabs for a later time, you can have a desktop with quick access to your programs as well as a file manager storing all your precious stuff.
If that sounds very typical to you, in the 70s it was Science Fiction.
The idea of such a small computer that fits in a desk was Science Fiction.
The idea of any computer was Science Fiction.
If anyone could expect all those three to be combined in a computer in the 70s, may as well say it was Science Fiction. Yet, Xerox had a vision.
1973, the Xerox Alto has hit the Market. Now, what?
I'll say a phrase you should remember: "Innovation takes time, and a lot of it." The least Xerox could expect is people lining up for the Alto. The first Microcomputers hit the market during that time, they were also new, and they had no fancy mice or GUIs. People did not adapt fast to new ideas, let alone new ideas on top of new ideas. If the Alto had released a decade later, it would be actually kind of successful. But yet, it released too early.
Oh, and did I mention Xerox was a printers company? You may see them as geniuses but your typical company looking for a computer in the size of a desk did not want something out of Science Fiction and from a company that makes printers. And for the people at homes, they preferred something cheaper, and probably most of them did not even consider a computer at their homes.
If it were Apple, there could be a better chance... but who knows?
Xerox did not make many more computers, they focused on printers since then. Neither did any other company attempt at making GUI based computers. At least for the 70s.
As a positive note, the technology stuck around.
The mouse would be starting to be used more commonly as the years went by through DOS programs that supported mice. As of the GUI the Alto had, a decade later, Apple would be inspired to make history with the Apple Lisa (oh, I meant the Macintosh, or did I? More on that coming soon).
Conclusion
The Xerox Alto was a nifty little machine that made history with its revolutionary GUI and use of the Computer Mouse, not a very common device at the time. However, its story of how it was ignored and forgotten and how many see the Macintosh or the Windows as the first GUI OS is devastating at its least but it teaches us that we have to wait for something to come out in the correct time. And if it does come earlier, let's hope that it will leave an important fossil that someone will build up on. That is the Xerox Alto, and that was its adventure as it made Science Fiction machines something we actually have today.
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