The first Macintosh

The first Macintosh computer was introduced by Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984 at $2,495. Apple sold 70,000 units within the first few months on the market.

The Macintosh was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI) rather than a command-line interface. Unlike the command-line interface, the Mac called its directories "folders" and used an icon of a file folder to represent each folder on what looked like a stylized desktop. Files the user didn't want or need went in the "Trash" represented by a recognizable trash-can icon. The interface made visual sense, which made it easy and intuitive to use.

It didn't have a model number, it was simply "the Apple Macintosh." Early model equipped with 128Kb of RAM simply said "Macintosh" on the back, while later ones were marked "Macintosh 128K" to distinguish them from the later Macintosh 512K (un-officially referred to as the 'Fat Mac'), which were released eight months later, when Apple released that 128k of RAM had quickly become insufficient.

The first Mac was equipped with 128 KB RAM, 64 KB ROM, a 3.5" 400 KB floppy drive, a 1-bit 512 x 342 pixel b&w monitor, a mouse, and a couple applications (MacWrite and MacPaint).

The Macintosh was destined to change computing forever, as it not only created the Mac look and feel, it also inspired forthcoming versions of Microsoft Windows and several other windowing interfaces.

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