With the sad news of Bill Atkinson passing away I felt it was an appropriate time to re-read one of my favourite stories - the creation of the Macintosh - something Bill was pivotal in. I've read a few retellings but the most intimate is Revolution in the Valley by Andy Hertzfeld.
It was published in 2005, 20 years after the initial release of the Mac and I'm reading it in 2025, 20 years after the book was first published - over 40 years since the original Mac went on sale. The book documents the creation of the Mac from Andy's point of view as he was there from pretty much the start, programming the Mac's ROM, aka the bit that makes the damn thing do anything useful.
There's so many anecdotes and cute little moments:
Andy's clashes with Bob Belleville, his manager at Apple, broke my heart. You can read it in "Too Big For My Britches" on folklore.org and Andy expands on it further in an interview with Bob Cringley, but at its core, this passionate genius was driven out of Apple because of a gaslighting arsehole middle manager. The pain was compounded by Steve Jobs practically abandoning Andy after the launch of the Mac. Having watched Andy give interviews and talks, he seems like a compassionate and genuine person, so I felt really upset knowing that's how he was treated.
Steve Jobs barging in and telling Andy about Mr. Macintosh is probably my favourite story in the book. Steve explains that "Mr. Macintosh is a mysterious little man who lives inside each Macintosh. He pops up every once in a while, when you least expect it, and then winks at you and disappears again. It will be so quick that you won't be sure if you saw him or not. We'll plant references in the manuals to the legend of Mr. Macintosh, and no one will know if he's real or not."
Oh how I wish Mr. Macintosh was kept in the ROM, but space in the ROM was precious and Mr. Macintosh had to go, despite Steve being serious about it. He even commissioned Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon to create some Mr. Macintosh concept art, that was never used, like this one titled "The Macintosh Spirit":
There's still time for Apple to do this in macOS 26! Come on Tim Cook, do something fun for once in your life.
The story of the Mac's birth makes me incredibly jealous. I wish so much I could be part of a project or a task that's so intense, everyone is so passionate about and leaves such a legacy. Everyone involved cared so deeply about the computer they were building - even the things like documentation, usually an afterthought in most projects I've been involved in, were treated just as importantly as the hardware and the software.
Having spent the last few years oscillating between Linux, Windows and the Mac as my primary computer as I get more disillusioned with Apple as a company, Revolution in the Valley reminded me why I love the Mac. Apple and computing in general has changed so much since the 80s, but due to these amazing stories of the Mac's development, using a Mac makes me feel something that Linux and Windows, or even iOS to be honest, simply do not. What that feeling is, I can't quite explain but I should probably explore that in a separate blog post.
After reading Revolution in the Valley, I watched General Magic, a documentary about the company with the same name that Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson started, along with the less famous but just as important, Marc Porat. It all had a very similar vibe to the Mac just a few years earlier and many of the original Mac team was involved. I won't spoil it for those who haven't watched it, but if you find the story of the Mac interesting, you will love the General Magic documentary.
