GlobalView 2.1, released in 1996, is the descendant of the Xerox Star
ViewPoint desktop software. The Xerox Star was the 1981 commercial successor
to the Xerox Alto. The Xerox Star and GlobalView were primarily sold 
as a document processing system although they could do much more.

GlobalView runs on an IBM-PC compatible under Microsoft Windows (3.1,
95, 98, possibly ME but not NT, 2000, or XP due to the use of .386 VXDs).
For all practical purposes GlobalView is not a Windows application, it
is essentially the Xerox Star desktop and OS software running in an emulator.
Earlier versions of GlobalView required a hardware MESA CPU add-on board,
however this version uses a software emulator.

When starting GlobalView for the first time it may take a little while
to start up as it “boots”. Eventually it will display the login screen.

It appears this login is supposed to authenticate with a network. Regrettably
I do not happen to have a Xerox 8000 series server laying around. GlobalView
is capable of talking to a Xerox network using the PC’s ethernet adapter
if a DOS mode network card driver is installed.

Without a network present it creates a local workspace and allows the
login to proceed.

This is the default desktop appearance.

Ouch! A purple background? For the rest of these screen shots I will
set the background to gray so I don’t burn out my eyes.

This screen shot shows GlobalView in action.

GlobalView is very similar in appearance and functionality to ViewPoint
that ran on Xerox Star workstations. There are, obviously, some GlobalView
specific additions such as color support and PC drive access.

GlobalView is really a very well designed GUI, especially considering
it was designed back before Windows, the Macintosh, or even the Apple Lisa.
However, if you are used to using more modern GUIs, then GlobalView may
feel kind of odd, clunky, or even backwards. There is nothing really wrong
with the design, but many of the ways things are done in GlobalView are
different from the way things are done today.

A few of the differences:

• Instead of having window borders that can be grabbed to resize, each window
  h