Mark's Notebook


	Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Father of the Mac dead at 61

Monday 28 February 2005, 11:05 am
Keywords: Computer Topics , News Articles

Ex-Apple Employee Helped Make Computers More User-Friendly

By Mary Anne Ostrom

Jef Raskin, who dreamed up the affordable, user-friendly computer that became Apple's Macintosh, died Saturday night at his Pacifica home.

Raskin, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago, was 61.

He was employee No. 31 at Apple when he joined in 1978. By the next year, he began to pursue his goal of simplifying the computer user's experience, focusing on a faster and more logical interface.

But when he clashed with another Apple visionary, co-founder Steve Jobs, Jobs took over Raskin's team "by fiat," Raskin once said, and he resigned in 1981. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said many of Raskin's groundbreaking user-interface features remained part of the Mac when it was released in 1984.

"Jef's dream changed the world," Wozniak said Sunday. "Making technology work simpler, he was at the heart of that from the first days at Apple." Wozniak said Raskin also convinced Jobs to spend time at Xerox PARC to see how to develop cutting-edge technology. "Jef Raskin is one of the most important people in personal computers, to this day," he added.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11013273.htm

Mark says: Jef Raskin has a web site that shows all his research:
http://www.raskincenter.org/