In a message dated 4/22/2004 1:00:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cctalk-request_at_classiccmp.org writes:
>
> Time Magazines calls him "the force behind the
> Macintosh"... I wonder what Jef Raskin would make of
> that comment.
Though it is true that Jef Raskin started the Macintosh project at Apple in 1979, his Macintosh was to be an 8-bit utilitarian machine. It would have had a bit-mapped screen, but no GUI or a mouse at all. Jef Raskin has always been very devout in user interface which promotes keeping your hands on the keyboard. His 1987 Canon Cat is more along the lines of what Raskin's Mac would have been.
Raskin simply gave Jobs an easy existing platform "vehicle" to take over, when Jobs was denied control of the much touted Lisa project. Raskin left Apple in 1982 after Jobs took over (but I think he still signed the Mac inside case - anyone?). Jobs wanted to out "Lisa" the Lisa project, and so the Macintosh quickly went from a $500 consumer computer, to $1000, to $1500 and finally to $1995 - that is before Sculley thought it should be $2500 minimally (thus was born Apple's outrageous profit margin on Macs).
Jobs certainly does deserve a huge amount of credit, however wrong he might have treated anyone, for his pure force of will in the creation of the Mac as we knew/know. He forced some design decisions which were wrong and Apple paid for (closed architecture, etc.), but he was 90% on overall (appliance design, one button mouse). His direction with Apple in the last 6 years has been mostly very good. Apple's stock is steadily rising now. The Mac consumer market remains at about 6% in the US, but their server (OS X) market is growing big-time. The Mac OS is excellent. I still love to set up my cube and run NeXTSTEP 3.3, which I now understand a lot better.
Here are some recent opinions of Jef Raskin's about the Mac:
http://www.macminute.com/2004/02/11/jeffraskin
Best, David, classiccomputing.com
Received on Thu Apr 22 2004 - 15:03:48 BST