1984 was the year in which George Orwell's eponymous novel seemed set to come true, at least in the world of computing. The beige tide of IBM PCs was rolling over the desktop and drowning the one-time diversity of computer design.

But in December 1983, an advertisement had appeared in cinemas across America featuring an athletic young woman who, bursting into an auditorium full of gray drones, smashed Big Brother's image with a hammer. It was a blow that was to be heard around the world.

The advertisement was pre-launch publicity for Apple's Macintosh computer, undoubtedly the most influential machine since the MITS Altair of 1975 and, quite possibly, the most influential computer design of all time.

The Macintosh was not Apple's first venture into the world of graphical computing, the honour for that went to the ill-fated Lisa which had been introduced the previous year and raised hardly a ripple on the public's consciousness. It wasn't really surprising.

The Lisa was a massive machine in every sense. Costing nearly ten thousand dollars and just too heavy for one man to lift alone, the Lisa's innovative graphical operating system was seen as an interesting peculiarity with no real relevance to the ordinary user. Indeed, graphical user interfaces had been around for some time, Xerox capitalizing on the research done at their Palo Alto facility by releasing the Star range in 1981. Like the Lisa, it was an expensive product aimed squarely at the corporate buyer and although technically interesting it had little more effect on the mainstream of desktop computing than Apple's machine.

But Apple had a plan. It turned out that the Lisa was just the test bed for a truly innovative and, indeed, startling development. The Macintosh was not only a machine built around a GUI, it was a machine aimed squarely at the home user.

The computer was designed to be attractive, portable and, above all, easy to use. The 9 inch screen was set into a compact casing with a molded in carrying handle. The machine came ready to use with a keyboard and a mouse. There was useful software installed when you first switched the 'Mac' on. And when you did switch it on, the Macintosh would smile at you, say 'hello' and teach you how to use it.

The effect on the public was electric. People flew to America to buy the computer because at first it wasn't available for export, a mistake rectified with gratifying speed as Apple realised that it had a success on its hands far beyond its wildest dreams.

Unlike IBM's PC, the Macintosh was a closed system. Most of its OS was in ROM and the case was specifically designed to be opened only by trained service personnel. Where the PC was more or less a basic platform on which to build, the Macintosh was a consumer item to be used as it stood. It was a brave philosophy and one which, notwithstanding the Mac's immediate success, nearly killed it.

The fundamental problems soon became clear. The Macintosh, with its 128KB of RAM and single 800KB disk drive, features intended to keep the selling price at the magic level of $2,495, was seriously underpowered. Apple reacted quickly and followed up the original launch with a series of upgrades and re-designs which culminated in the SE/30, released almost exactly five years after the original model. By that stage, the Macintosh was the machine of choice for anyone in the graphic arts field and the SE/30's 1MB of RAM and 80MB hard disk reflected this.

It's impossible to overstate the vital importance of the Macintosh in the development of modern computing. Despite all its faults, it heralded two revolutions: the rise of the GUI and the concept of the computer as a consumer product.

Microsoft were closely involved in the development of the Macintosh and there can be little doubt that Windows owes an enormous debt to the Macintosh GUI. Much more importantly, the concept of the computer as a tool for the home rests squarely with the Apple machine. Games machines, such as the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair Spectrum, had brought computers into the home but the Macintosh, for all its high price, made the computer a consumer item.

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