Mouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)
Posy4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2022-2026
3M views · 8 years ago · explainer · evergreen
Posy gives a short history of the computer mouse cursor, from early straight pointers to the tilted arrow, comparing Apple and Windows designs. He then explains why he designed his own cursor set and offers it as a free download.
HN treats it as the definitive, short, well-made video on mouse cursors and pulls it out whenever cursor design, pixel perfection or the tilted arrow comes up.
2:20:15The Final Demonstration of the Xerox 'Star' computer
Computer History Museum
22K views • 13 years ago
17:10Xerox Star User Interface: An overview
ACM SIGCHI
20K views • 5 years ago
24:30Bill Atkinson: Polaroids showing the Evolution of the Lisa GUI
Computer History Museum
13K views • 1 year ago
3:47Sketchpad, by Dr. Ivan Sutherland with comments by Alan Kay
David Carroll
54K views • 19 years ago
5:51Susan Kare explains Macintosh UI ergonomics on the Computer Chronicles (1984)
erg0steur
51K views • 6 years ago
42:38VCF East: Xerox Star vs. Apple Lisa
Vintage Computer Federation
41K views • 5 years ago
8:01Xerox Star User Interface (1982) 2 of 2
VintageCG
57K views • 17 years ago
8:42Xerox Star User Interface (1982) 1 of 2
VintageCG
337K views • 17 years ago
1:02:28A History of The ARM Microprocessor | Dave Jaggar | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
22K views • 7 years ago
49:39NeWS: A Networked and Extensible Window System, lecture by James Gosling
Computer History Museum
5K views • 10 years ago
23:41Windows 8: The Animated Evaluation
blogphilofilms
645K views • 13 years ago
1:40:53The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)
Marcel
1.2M views • 14 years ago
9:41How Steve Jobs got the ideas of GUI from XEROX
Ringo Pebam
272K views • 12 years ago
17:34Leap Technology
aamoviebb
25K views • 15 years ago
56:23Inventing the Computer Mouse | Douglas Engelbart | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
30K views • 19 years ago
12:23Typesetters in the '80s - Computerphile
Computerphile
105K views • 12 years ago
6:15Canon Cat
Storia Informatica
17K views • 12 years ago
16:48Yesterday's Computer of Tomorrow: The Xerox Alto │Smalltalk-76 Demo
Computer History Museum
38K views • 8 years ago
52:41Alto System Project: Larry Tesler demonstration of Gypsy
Computer History Museum
31K views • 7 years ago
19:20Ivan Sutherland Sketchpad Demo 1963
Interface Studies
136K views • 14 years ago
7 comments from Hacker News
The best video on mouse cursors I've seen, by Posy: ▶ this video It doesn't exactly answer the question, but I -- someone who doesn't watch video and wants text, articles -- have watched this video twice over. It's worth it :)
For a better deep dive into mouse cursors with more information, there's Posy's "Mouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)": ▶ this video It also shows how absolutely horrid Windows' cursor designs are. They always were. I still remember making my own sets back in the early 2000s when DeviantArt was the home of desktop customization.
I was just about to say that. There's an amazing video by Posy documenting mouse cursor history, and even provides his own cursor pack: ▶ this video link
Time for one of my favourite Youtube videos, by Posy (Michiel de Boer.) 'Mouse cursor history (and why I made my own).' ▶ this video It runs through the history of mouse cursors, as well as problems with some of the standard ones, and shows, among other things, historical cursors which were straight and not tilted. It is one of those amazing videos that make the internet worthwhile, is short, and is by the author of Posy's Cursor Pack, link
Timestamps: History of OS cursors from System 1.0 to recent MacOS, and Windows 1.0 to Windows 10: ▶ this video How the current Windows 10 cursor is wonky: ▶ this video (probably the most interesting part of the video) He ends up fixing the wonky mouse cursor in Windows and makes the download available in the show notes. link
If you want to investigate the history of the macOS cursor, and other cursor schemes, I highly recommend this video: ▶ this video + link
This is a really good video about how Apple cares about being pixel perfect compared to Windows with something simple and obvious like the mouse cursor icon: ▶ this video The improvements he made are also quite nice, Microsoft should take note...