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The original Macintosh really seems like it borrowed a lot aesthetically, in addition to the similarity in operation:

http://lowendmac.com/1984/macintosh-128k/

http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-resto...

I'm not seeing the aesthetic similarity between the Mac and the Alto, except that they're both beige, have a mouse, and are taller than wide. What specifically do you see in common?

Monitors back then were wide then and the Alto turned the screen on its side. The Mac somewhat similarly had a screen that wasn't wide. The Mac mouse is also copied from the Alto's if you look at the shape.

What Mac are you talking about? The classic Mac screen was wider than it was tall.

I'm not following you here - the Mac had a wide monitor, standard 4:3 CRT, totally unlike the Alto's portrait display. The Mac's mouse had one button, while the Alto's mouse had three buttons. Both had a rectangular shape, but that's the obvious shape to use (see Engelbart's mouse).

Well, Xerox got pre-IPO Apple stock, so I would hope Apple got something for the money.

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