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| (click on picture) |
| This is the original Microsoft Mouse, usually
referred to as the 'Green
Eye Mouse' . It was released in 1985 with
the release of the Windows Operating System. It is not
the first mouse pointing device available commercially
for a computer, that honor goes to the Apple Lisa
about 2 years earlier. But it was the first to be
available for the PC market and it has 2 buttons. The
mouse pointing device was developed by the team of
computer engineers at Xerox's Palo Alto
Research Center ( PARC
) in the late 70's for use with their Graphical
User Interface (GUI
) operating system. After taking his walk in the PARC,
Bill Gates realized the future of the computer operating
system was in the user friendly GUI
operating system. After seeing the GUI
prototype on the Lisa, Apple's newest
computer designed to replace the popular Apple II line,
he ordered his programmers to develop a GUI
based operating system for the PC market. Windows version
1 and the 'Green Eye Mouse' were the
result of this order. The mouse has two protruding green buttons, hence it's nickname 'green eye', a rounded white body with Microsoft etched into it's top and a black cable that terminates with a 25 pin D-plug to attach to the serial port on the original PC and compatibles. On the underside it has 3 small steel balls that allow it to glide over a surface and a large steel ball in the center to register it's position, unlike the mice of today which use a rubber ball to register position and slippery pads to glide over the mouse pad. It was shipped with two 5.25 inch floppy disks containing the drivers to allow it to work with Windows and DOS. Also included were 2 Drawing programs, first Microsoft Show Partner program on two 5.25 inch floppy disks and Microsoft Paintbrush to demonstrate the mouse's abilities. These mice are becoming rare and very hard to find and I want to thank Ray Hyatt Jr. for selling it to me. |