The Digibarn Computer Museum reports that Jef Raskin, human-computer interface expert who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer died on Saturday, February 26th, 2005. Raskin was born March 9, 1943.
David Warlick, in his Digital Divide Network blog, reports that Raskin, who named the Macintosh after his personal favorite fruit, died of cancer.
“I named it for my favorite kind of eatin’ apple, the succulent McIntosh (I changed the spelling of the name to avoid potential conflict with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer).” – Jef Raskin, April 11, 1996
Jef Raskin was the human-computer interface expert who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer and was the author of The Humane Interface, which in large part builds on his earlier work with the Canon Cat. Raskin received a B.S. Mathematics and B.A. in Philosophy from the State University of New York and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University. As an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), he taught classes ranging from computer science to photography.
Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as the 31st employee. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple, and began the Macintosh project. He was credited with the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC standard of a three-button mouse. He has since stated that were he to redesign the interface, he would have used a two button mouse.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of The Humane Environment (THE). THE is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of a ZUI or Zooming User Interface. (source: Wikipedia.com)
More about Jef Raskin here.
[Attribution: O’Grady’s Power Page]
MacDailyNews Take: Raskin was truly a very interesting modern-day Renaissance man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Rest in peace Jef !
You will always be in our hearts and minds.
A true loss; My heart goes out to all of his friends and family. He was on my short list of “people I would love to have a long conversation with”.
Magic Word “life”
Jef was instrumental in the development of the Macintosh, and he will be missed..
I always got the impression that Jef was a little stuck up whenever he’d talk about the Mac or his influence on User Interfaces, but his involvement in starting the Macintosh project at Apple was, IMO, one of the biggest moments in computer history. If you get a chance to, go to folklore.org and read the stories there. It will be a nice way to remember his impact in the world of computers. He will be missed.
Don’t know too much about Jeff but everytime I heard about him, he was saying something to bash the current state of the Machintosh and OS X. While alive I couldn’t say I liked him, but would have never wished Death upon him, I would actually would have liked to see what he was about to come up with, maybe the computer interface could have been more advanced! you know what competition does. Rest in peace, your place in history will live on forever
How tragic! I still have emails from him (yes, he’s one of those folks who actually write back!) concerning THE and other matters. I’d told him next time I was in NoCal I’d drop by and say hi…. Guess I should have done it earlier!
Very sad indeed…..
While one is (or should be) saddened by the death of anyone not completely evil, it’s frustrating to see the headlines. If Jef Raskin has gotten his way, the macintosh would have been the canon pet, and we know how successful that one. Jef Raskin quit Apple of the direction the Mac project took and the computer we all love today would not exist if the self proclaimed “father of the macintosh” had actually run the project.
What’s frustrating about the MDN headline, Paco, if anything? It doesn’t say “Father of the Mac” or anything like that. I think it’s just right. Raskin did name the Mac and he was a “GUI pioneer.” Or are you just upset that Raskin’s death is generating headlines?
Jef Raskin R.I.P.
Goodbye, Jef.
Jef will be missed…Apple needs to say something, he’s about as important an employee as the come.
MDN Magic word: Top, as in top of the class.
Jef Raskin will be remembered as one of the true pioneers of computing and he will be missed. It’s not just about what computers can do, it’s what ordinary folks can do with them, and his work with human interfaces opened our eyes to the possibilities. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Jef could most certainly be the ‘Father of the Macintosh’, and of course Steve would be the ‘Daddy’.
Little ‘Mac’ also had a lot of aunts and uncles who participated in it’s early development
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It also had many friends help it up through it’s teen and early twenty-something years.
As history will see it, Jef’s contribution to the Mac was – no more, or no less – exactly the correct amount.
(How’s that for tap-dancin’ on the pinhead of any notion of ‘fate’
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Oh, and uh…
Goodbye, Jef. Thanks for being with us.
Paco you are a fsckin moron
Here’s to the Craziest One
The Person that Thought Different, enough to begin the McIntosh and the Cat.
You certainly made a Dent in the Universe that will be felt for 100’s of years.
Rest in Peace Jef
Click
Whatever might be said of Jef, he is responsible for the single most important aspect of the Mac philosophy…that computers should be designed from the interface out. This singular idea, I consider to be the heart of the Mac and the real differentiator of the Mac from other systems. Though OS X can hardly be said to be a true incarnation of this philosophy, Apple still maintains the highest repsect for the user interface and the human experience. I credit both Jef and Steve Jobs for this commitment.
I have a Jef Raskin story, and a couple of thoughts
I heard him speak on some panel at a conference in San Francisco. I am fairly sure it was at a West Coast Computer Faire in the 80’s.
So anyway, Jef was going on, making comparisons between computers and household appliances. He said something along the lines of “look how easy it is to use a washing machine, computers should be like that!”. It was all I could do, scrappy early 20’s pup that I was, from bolting up and yelling “yeah, but when was the last time you tried to do your taxes with your washing machine!”. I maintained…
I always appreciated the fact that Jef and others were trying to make things easier to use, but, I always wanted to diplomatically say “hey, the tasks that require some thinking are never going to be thoroughly easy”. If the user isn’t willing to learn a little, then you dramatically limit what can be done in a UI. On the other hand, I am very glad that it was Jef that had an imprint on the Mac, and not Ted Nelson!
So bye Jef. Many respect your work, and that’s a great legacy. You’ll be missed.
The black apple of mourning will be worn today, to heck with the dress code at work.
We lost one of the movers and shakers. 61 is pretty young too. Does anyone know what kind of cancer it was?
Here’s wishing you all the best in your new adventure, Jef.
A light went out,
its heat remains.
Must have been the lack of firewire cable in his new iPod box that did it…
Let’s remember Jef for his incredible contributions, to the Macintosh (the original idea and the first three years were all Jef’s), user interfaces (where he has gone well beyond the Mac in his thinking), and his music, art, and generosity.
Old battles over credit and egos just aren’t interesting anymore.
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Folklore.org has about as much information about Jef Raskins contributions to the Mac as anyone, and all straight from coworkers.
Try reading “I Invented Burrell.”
Jef spirit lives on the people he inspired so to that effect he is not truly gone. Another reason for us to do out bit to inspire others -immortality
Thank you sincerely Mr. Raskin for all your contributions to society, and for your wonderful idea to name the computer after both our favorite eatin’ apple!
I was looking forward to THE, I’ve recieve the news letters. I am truly shock since I had no idea he was sick.