So, let’s dig in and see how that original Mac influenced everything since.
Macs also laid the groundwork for every subsequent operating system, initially for iOS and eventually for VisionOS.
It was like a sheet of paper, and instantly familiar.
Macintosh SE Computer.Matt Benson / Unsplash
It also had familiar icons in the shape of folders, paper documents, and so on.
This model is still in use today.
The ‘Save’ icon isa floppy disk.
Mac Computer With Carry Bag, Keyboard, Mouse.Museums Victoria / Unsplash
A phone icon looks like the kind of landline handset that many smartphone users have never even seen.
And it’s not just the icons.
The entire desktop metaphor, with a menubar at the top, is still the way computers work today.
The First Consumer Mouse
The other big paradigm introduced by the Mac was the mouse.
The mouse wasn’t new.
It was inventedtwo decades earlier in the Stanford labof computing pioneer Doug Engelbar.
It was also joyful in a way that IBM’s computers were not.
For example, the iconsdesigned by Susan Karewere at once whimsical and functional.
Today, the Mac has benefitted from the innovations of its heirs.
