From an Atari Magazine article, I forget which one most like;y Compute. They state that GEM was based on the public domain user interface that Xerox labs started creating back in 1965 by a guy who jumped off the IBM big blue boat. But Xerox Labs did invent the point & click GUI interface that most Operating systems use today. Just think how rich those guys would be if they got patents on the mouse or the point & click GUI, but in ways we can all thank them for placing the concepts in public domain. Even tho later users of the concepts have patterned their work on the ideas.

Texas Instruments TI-199/A4? I cut my PC teeth on one of those I borrowed from a friend. At the time I didn't have a need for a computer, but they were VERY fun to play with. I used it to take my first BASIC class and made incredible voice files with it.

The artificial voice programmer in that machine sounded almost a realistic as today's digital voice programs; as long as you put the right inflections in - that is!

I was surprised many years ago to find a German customer's office entirely kitted out with these systems, long after the PC became dominant in the UK. They had a superior performance to most PCs and were a lot smaller.

My father-in-law used one for years as his main music composition system, only moving to a PC when the ST finally died. Those built in midi ports were linked to his keyboards so he could compose at the piano.