News 

But back in the 1970's it was where every modern computer finds its roots - and, most famously of all, where Steve Jobs came in December 1979 and had the most blinding epiphany in the history of computers. It was there that Jobs first saw windows, icons, and a mouse used to control a computer, and at that moment, the idea for what would eventually be the Mac was born.

In fact the Mac was the second computer from Apple to use a graphical users interface. In typical Apple style, Jobs first began another project, which became the Lisa. But when the Apple board insisted that he allow the Lisa project to be run by its official manager, John Couch, Jobs searched for a replacement project to devote its energies to. Finding a small team working on a low-cost, friendly computer, he effectively created a smaller, lighter and cheaper Lisa, stealing and improving all the ideas from Lisa wholesale. Along the way, he bet Couch $1000 that Macintosh (as the machine was codenamed) would ship first. He lost the bet, but in creating the Mac, he won far more than a measly $1000.

Introducing Macintosh
And now Jobs' child is 20 years old. The little computer 'for the rest of us' (as the first Apple ads claimed) has turned into a whole series of machines, from a 4lb laptop to a behemoth of a tower that's capable, when grouped in large numbers, of being the third-fastest supercomputer in the world. There have been triumphs of design, such as the iMac, and abominations like the Mac IIsi. There's been the $700 Mac, in the shape of the Power Mac 4400, and the $10,000 Mac, the screamingly fast Mac IIfx.

But the most iconic, and amazing of them all remains the first Mac, the original 128K model. With its beautiful 1980's beige shell, svelte keyboard, and - of course - mouse, it looked like nothing else, before or since. The design of the machine set Apple apart from the rest, and nothing from any other manufacturer has ever matched it.

Of course, it wasn't just the case that set the Mac apart. The software was at

ADVERTISEMENT

least 10 years ahead of its time - so much so, in fact, that at the launch of Windows 95, 11 years after the original Mac, Apple could put out stickers claiming that 'Windows 95 = Macintosh 84', and actually have a reasonable case.

Plus ça change
Yet, the Mac could have died. After the launch of the original 128K machine the company struggled to produce a successor. So much emotional and physical energy had been expended by its developers that there was simply nothing left to build the inevitable upgrade. Only the fact that the Mac's designers - in direct defiance of Steve Jobs' orders - had made it easy to upgrade the memory to 512Kb saved the machine. In fact, a cottage industry of upgraders appeared, willing to remove the logic board of your Mac and perform the tricky deed with a soldering iron. Some of them even advertised in early issues of MacUser.

Back in the first issue of MacUser, we interviewed Ian McKinnell, a photographer and illustrator who was the first person in the UK to own a Mac. In a sentence that will resonate with every Mac user since, McKinnell said 'most [of my friends] tended to laugh at me for buying a Mac. At the time, it wasn't regarded as much more than a toy.'

However, 20 years on, McKinnell is still using the machine his friends claimed was a toy. A photographer and illustrator, McKinnell now uses a Power Mac G4 dual, but is looking to get a Power Mac G5 in the not too distant future. 'The first Mac cost me £3500, including a printer and an external drive. Strangely enough, every machine since seems to have cost about the same - I've just got more bangs per buck,' he added. The essence of the machine, the ease of use that attracted people to the platform in the first place, is undoubtedly still there.

Why 2004 won't be like 1984
But if that essence is the same, the power of the machine is very, very different. Although the first Mac used the incredibly powerful Motorola 68000 processor (capable of addressing a vast 16Mb of RAM, 'although your wallet isn't' as then-Apple technical support guru Chris Espinosa once quipped), compared to today's PowerPC 970 it looks positively archaic. Where today's Mac screams through video and 3D rendering, the original Mac 128K tore through word processing and simple drawing with MacWrite and MacPaint.

Yet whether you're writing documents or creating video, the Mac remains the creative platform of choice. The Mac OS still feels like a creative tool, rather than a piece of technology. And that suggests that, as long as there are creative people, there will be a Mac to be productive with.