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GUI Pioneer Jef Raskin Has Passed Away
Viridian writes "Jef Raskin, GUI pioneer, interface expert, Apple employee #31, and the man most credited with the creation of the Apple Macintosh, died of cancer on Saturday February 26, 2005. It was Raskin who named it after his favorite fruit, the McIntosh apple, although he said that he changed the spelling to "Macintosh" to avoid potential copyright conflicts with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer."
I know we have discussed his more recent work on ZUI and whatnot here before and some people are a big fan of it and others are not. But I wonder what will happen with the project, or if it will be continued by others he was working with. He seems to be the one who really spear-headed the effort. Does anyone know? It would be a shame if he couldn't finish his project as he conceived it and it got dropped because there was no one to take it over. Condolences to anyone who knew him well.
Unfortunately, he and Steve have been mad at each other since 1982. But we'll see. There will be plenty of accolades for a man who changed the face of personal computing from the inside. (Steve Jobs changed it from the outside.)
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
The only mention I can find on the entire Apple site (using their "advanced search") is something about "DB2 HyperCard Demo Disks" referring to the "Raskin-Bobbins Hypercard Stack". You'd think that someone of Raskin's stature and relevance to Apple's success would at least have an honorable mention somewhere.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
It's a sad, sad day; especially to lose another great mind to cancer. I just hope Jef's ideas may be taken even more seriously now that he's sloughed off this mortal coil.
Iirc Jef was fired shortly before the Mac shipped.
Actually, after Jobs got ousted from the Lisa project, he commandeered the Macintosh project from Raskin (then a project to make a very cheap $500 computer). Shortly after taking the reigns, Jef and Steve had a number of "conflicts" and Steve eventually pushed Jef out on a leave of absence.
He truly was a pioneer though. From his very early influence on the project to his comprehensive manual on what a GUI should be.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
I dont know what hapens after we die , but if your out there somewhere then i hope this gets to you
Mr Raskin
The first computer i ever used was a zx spectrum , the first computer that ever made me feel pasionate about computing was a mac.
I myself am severly dyslexic and dysphraxic and during my younger years had great difficulty in schooling, had it not been for the mac in our school i feel i would still be marked slow , the interface allowed me to put my thoughts down so other people could understand , it allowed me to excell and fill in a void which would have crippled my education.
I owe you and your team alot as do many others who were in my situation.
so tonight i shall open a 12 year old speyside single malt and drink a glass to honour your memory.
Thank you for all you have done for the world
Gregg Taylor Kincaid
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Slashdotters, I have been working with the Raskins for several years to document Jef's life and work for the DigiBarn Computer Museum. I have turned Jef's page at the museum site into a memorial page for him. See what Jef was all about (more than just GUIs) at:
Jef Raskin: A Life of Design and the rest of the DigiBarn is of relevance to this topic at:
DigiBarn Computer Museum
Thanks!
Bruce Damer, Curator