NLS (oN-Line System) was a revolutionary computer system developed by Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s. It introduced many fundamental concepts of modern computing, including the computer mouse, hypertext, video conferencing, and collaborative editing.
The Mother of All Demos
On December 9, 1968, Engelbart demonstrated NLS in what has become known as “The Mother of All Demos.” In a 90-minute presentation, he showed technologies that would take decades to become commonplace: the mouse, windows, hypertext links, real-time video conferencing, and collaborative document editing.
Key Innovations
NLS pioneered concepts we now take for granted:
- Computer Mouse: First practical pointing device for computing
- Hypertext: Clickable links connecting documents
- Windows: Multiple views of different documents
- Video Conferencing: Remote collaboration via video
- Version Control: Tracking document changes
- Word Processing: Rich text editing
Impact
Though NLS itself was never commercially successful, its ideas spread through researchers who went on to join Xerox PARC and other institutions. The innovations debuted in the 1968 demo directly influenced the development of personal computing, the World Wide Web, and modern user interfaces.