Mac News Today

Jef Raskin, Creator of the Macintosh, 1943-2005

- 2005.02.28

Popularity:

Jef Raskin, creator of the Apple Macintosh died on Saturday, February 26, aged 61.

Mr. Raskin was born in New York in 1943. He studied philosophy, mathematics, data processing, and electronics. His formal education was arts education at the University of San Diego. Later, he taught data processing, and music composition.

Mr. Raskin joined Apple as employee number 31 in 1978 to manage the publications department. In 1979, Mr. Raskin began work on the project that what was to become the Apple Macintosh - his idea was to develop a machine that was cheap, aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals, and was very easy to use.

In January 1984 the Apple Macintosh was unveiled and won acclaim as the world's most-advanced - and easy to use - personal computer. However, Mr. Raskin had left the Macintosh project three years prior, being sent on an involuntary leave of absence by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who had assumed control of the Macintosh group after being ousted from the Lisa group.

Despite Mr. Raskin's founding of the Macintosh project, some members of the Macintosh community have asked whether Mr. Raskin was really "the father of the Mac" as the press styled him.

In 2004, Macintosh team member Andy Hertzfeld told this journalist that: "Jef deserves a huge amount of credit for starting the Macintosh project and articulating the fundamental ideas behind it (an easy to use, low cost, high volume, consumer appliance computer). He also put together an amazing initial team to realize the ideas. But he left Apple during the early development stages and deserves little credit for the actual design and implementation of the Macintosh as shipped."

After leaving Apple, Mr. Raskin went on to found Information Appliance, which developed the Canon Cat "work processor" that embodied many of his original concepts for the Macintosh.

In December 2004, Mr. Raskin was diagnosed with cancer. He had just acquired funding for a his human-computer interface project entitled Archy, formerly known as the Humane Interface.

Mr. Raskin is survived by his wife of 23 years, Linda Blum, and; his children, Aza, Aviva, and Aenea.

Further reading: Jef Raskin, the Visionary Behind the Mac

Join us on Facebook!

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Macintosh Portable, introduced 1989.09.20. The nearly 16 lb. behemoth was innovative but not a smashing success.
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay