The computer that changed everything! Exactly 42 years ago, Apple introduced its Macintosh

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The story of Macintosh does not begin with Steve Jobs, but rather; with Jef Raskin, a computer interfaces expert who joined Apple in 1978. Raskin started a project in 1979 with the vision of creating an affordable and extremely simple computer for the average user. Zcaron wanted to create a device that would be like a “home appliance”, as easy to use as a toaster. He named the project after his favorite variety of apple, McIntosh, but the spelling was deliberately changed to “Macintosh” to avoid legal problems with audio equipment manufacturer McIntosh Laboratory.

Raskin’s original idea was quite modest. He envisioned a computer with a text interface and special function keys, and he opposed the use of a mouse, considering it imprecise and expensive. However, the fate of the project took a completely different direction.

Jobs’ turnaround and the “pirate” team

At the same time, Apple was developing another, much more ambitious project – the Lisa computer. Lisa was supposed to have an advanced graphical interface, but the project was burdened with high costs and internal conflicts. After being fired from the Lisa team in 1981, Steve Jobs turned his full attention to Raskin’s little project. He immediately recognized the potential, but he had a radically different vision.

A key moment happened back in 1979, when Jobs visited the legendary Xerox research center PARC with a team of Apple engineers. There they saw the future: a Xerox Alto computer that used windows, pull-down menus, icons and, most importantly, a mouse for navigation. Although Xerox failed to commercialize this revolutionary technology, Jobs realized that this was the way computing had to go. Taking control of the Macintosh project, he directed it toward creating an accessible version of what he saw at Xerox PARC. This led to conflict with Raskin, who eventually left the company in 1982.

Jobs assembled a small but brilliant team of young engineers and designers, including Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Burrell Smith. They worked in a separate building with a pirate flag flying on the roof, symbolizing their rebellious spirit and mission to create something “insanely great”, independent of the rest of the company. As a tribute to their efforts, the signatures of the entire team are stamped on the inside of the case of every original Macintosh.

Here is the price at which it was sold…

The marketing for the Macintosh was as revolutionary as the product itself. Two days before the official presentation, during the Super Bowl final, Apple aired a commercial that went down in history. It was directed by Ridley Scott, and was inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. The ad showed a grey, uniformed mass of people listening hypnotically to “Big Brother” on the big screen, until a young female athlete runs up and throws her kicks. into the screen, releasing them. The message was clear: Apple Macintosh is here to save the world from the conformity and dominance of the then computer giant, IBM.

The original Macintosh 128K, as it was later called, retailed for $2,495 (about $7,600 today). It was powered by a Motorola 68000 processor, had a nine-inch black-and-white screen, 128 kilobytes of RAM, and a built-in 3.5-inch floppy drive. It was precisely this small amount of memory that was its biggest drawback, but it came with two programs, MacWrite and MacPaint, which perfectly demonstrated the power of new interface.

Although the first version was not an immediate commercial success due to its high price and lack of software, the Macintosh laid the foundation for the future. He popularized the mouse, the graphical interface, and the concept of “what you see on the screen is what you get on paper” (WYSIWYG), which later started a revolution in desktop publishing.

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And after so many years, the legacy of that little bež boxes live in almost every computer, tablet and smartphone we use today.