Information on the Macintosh

Who is Jef Raskin? Jef Raskin started the Macintosh project. He hired Bill Atkinson who put together the first prototype.

Jef named the Macintosh after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh Apple. This name was only supposed to be a codename, the real name would eventually be the Apple V; However, the Macintosh name stuck.

Why is the Macintosh important? For one, it was the first computer to popularize a graphical user interface. It is also the moniker used in all of apple’s computers.

Steve Jobs abandoned (or was forced out of) the Lisa that he was working on, to work on the Macintosh. Jef and Steve didn’t get along and in 1981 Jef left the Macintosh project. The first Macintosh was first released in 1984.

It is said that Steve had more influence on the end product than Jef, which I would believe to be true if he was on the project without him for the final 3 years before launch.