Technically, Otto is a small computer. But in a sense, it can be considered as a personal computer (PC) because it is usually used by users sitting at desks. It is considered as the "first personal computer", although the title is still controversial.

Otto is not a commercial product, but widely used in all walks of life. Some famous American universities, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Columbia University and Rochester University, have all received donations from Otto, including IFS file servers and Dover laser printers. These machines were inspired by the workstations of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and Stanford University. Otto also influenced Apollo/Domain Workstation to a great extent.

Otto was once used by the information system department of the White House, and gradually became popular. The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) issued a proposal to replace the aging budget management system of the Office of Management and Budget of the United States, and suggested using a workstation similar to Otto to connect to an IBM-compatible mainframe. But the request was eventually withdrawn because no host manufacturer could provide such a configuration.

1979 12. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Company, visited the Xerox Research Center and visited the object-oriented programming environment and network of Smalltalk-80. It is worth mentioning that during the visit, Jobs became very interested in the WYSIWYG mouse-driven graphical user interface provided by Otto. Then he integrated it into Lisa series and Macintosh series computers, which attracted several key researchers to work in his company.

From 1980 to 198 1, Otto was gradually used by engineers in research centers and system development departments to design Xerox workstations.