We have just about had our fill of 20 year historical looks at the Mac, but we found yet another one we felt we should pass on to you. The Sydney Morning Herald has published its own retrospective of the Mac, and with its Aussie-attitude, we found it interesting and insightful. The article stems from the Mac’s 20th birthday, which was celebrated on January 24th. From the article, titled “Apple’s 20 years of revolution:”
The Apple Macintosh celebrated its 20th anniversary last week. It has been one of the most important machines of the computer revolution. It ranks with the IBM 360, the DEC PDP-8, the Apple II and the IBM PC as the most influential computers in history. That influence has been in its user interface and its design. These have evolved significantly but have always been pacesetters. Usually, anyway – the less said about the first Mac portable the better.
[…]
There is little doubt that the GUI has been one of the key developments in computing history. It made computers much easier to use and for 10 years now has been the standard operating environment across the IT industry. The Macintosh had a significant role in the widespread adoption of the GUI by showing mainstream computer users there was a real alternative.
Microsoft Windows is essentially a copy of the Macintosh GUI. Apple even took Microsoft to court in the late 1980s but the case collapsed when it was shown that Apple had itself copied the design from Xerox PARC. But it took Microsoft more than a decade to catch up and even today the Mac interface is much more elegant that Microsoft’s cumbersome Windows.
There’s a lot more information in the full article, and we recommend it as a very interesting read.
The Mac Observer Spin:
You tell ’em, Graeme. We’ve enjoyed seeing all the many articles that have celebrated 20 years of the Mac platform, though we imagine that the deluge is now coming to an end. OK, we hope the deluge is coming to an end.
Seriously, though, for a company with as little market share as Apple currently enjoys, not to mention a company that is so obviously close to death, the attention coming from the mainstream press has been astounding during this 20 year anniversary. It’s proof that the company is among the most influential tech companies on the planet, for those still needing that kind of proof.