The Xerox Alto, built at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s, introduced much of what we now consider normal computing: a desktop-and-mouse interface, a What You See Is What You Get word processor, networked e-mail between machines, and shared office laser printing. A video by [Ctrl+Alt+Fail] retraces the machine's story from its introduction to its demise and asks why we aren't all using Xerox machines today.

The hardware was hardly cheap: the first units cost about $12,000 to build in 1973 — roughly $90,000 today, or, as the piece notes, about 96 oz (2.7 kg) of gold. The computer itself was a filing-cabinet-sized unit under the desk; only the monitor sat on top. Still, cost wasn't the fatal problem, since later models would have become cheaper.

The real issue was that Xerox refused to sell the Alto in the 1970s. Management saw the paperless office it implied as a threat: a computer sold once generated no monthly service fees and none of the toner, drum and consumables revenue that made copiers so profitable. Having already lost millions on mainframe computing, Xerox weighed every decision on projected revenue, and the Alto didn't look like it could pay for itself.

Only around 2,000 Altos were ever built. People without an empire to protect — notably Steve Jobs, whose Lisa and Macintosh were inspired by the Alto — took the ideas and ran with them. The video argues this wasn't simple shortsightedness but internally coherent boardroom logic, which is what makes it worth watching. Hackaday also points to earlier coverage on restoring an Alto, an electromigration failure that nearly killed one, and why mining Bitcoin on an Alto is a poor life choice.