Andy Hertzfeld on NerdTV in an interview with Robert Cringely.

Andy Hertzfeld (born April 6, 1953) was a key member of the original Apple Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for Apple Computer from August 1979 until March 1984, where he was a key designer of the Macintosh system software. Since leaving Apple, he has co-founded three companies: Radius in 1986, General Magic in 1990 and Eazel in 1999. Hertzfeld joined Google in 2005 and has been working there since. From his early days at Apple, through the design, development and promotion of open source software with the Open Source Applications Foundation, his key contribution has been making computers easier and more fun to use. NerdTV is PBSs new tech TV show. ... Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of Mark Stephens, a computer journalist and broadcaster. ... is the 96th day of the year (97th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Apple Inc. ... The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac The Macintosh (commonly known as Mac) is a range of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Inc. ... Radius was a computer hardware firm founded by Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Mike Boich, Matt Carter, Alain Rossman and other members of the original Mac team specialising in Macintosh equipment. ... General Magic was a company co-founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat that developed new kind of handheld communications device they called a personal intelligent communicator, which was a PDA precursor that stressed communications. ... Eazel was a computer software company based in Mountain View, California. ... Google, Inc. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... The Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) is a non-profit organization founded by Mitch Kapor whose purpose is to effect widespread adoption of free software/open-source software. ... The NASA Columbia Supercomputer. ...

Career

Apple Computer (1979–1984)

Part of the original Macintosh design team, as seen on the cover of Revolution in the Valley.
Left to right: George Crow, Joanna Hoffman, Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Jerry Manock.

After graduating from Brown University with a Computer Science degree in 1975, Hertzfeld attended graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, he bought an Apple II computer and soon began developing software for it. He was hired by Apple Computer as a systems programmer in 1979 and developed the Apple SilenType printer firmware and the first 80-column card for the Apple II. In the early 1980s, he invited his high school friend, artist Susan Kare, to join Apple in order to help design what would become standard Macintosh icons. Image File history File links Mac_Design_Team. ... Image File history File links Mac_Design_Team. ... George Crow was a member of the original Apple Macintosh team in 1984 at Apple Computer. ... Joanna Hoffman was an Apple Computer employee in the 1980s when she worked on the Apple Macintosh team in 1984. ... Burrell who worked at apple, and designed the digital board for the original Macintosh. ... Bill Atkinson worked at Apple Computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... Jerrold Manock is an industrial designer well known for creating the enclosures of the Apple II and Macintosh personal computers. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... A graduate school or grad school is a school that awards advanced degrees, with the general requirement that students must have earned an undergraduate (bachelors) degree. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... An Apple SilenType printer. ... In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Susan Kare (born 1954) is an artist and graphic designer who created many of the interface elements for the Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. ...

Hertzfeld's business card at Apple listed his title as Software Wizard. He wrote large portions of the Macintosh's original system software including much of the burned-in ROM code, the User Interface Toolbox, and a number of innovative components now standard in many graphic user interfaces, like the Control Panel and Scrapbook. Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ... The Appearance control panel in Mac OS 9. ... Scrapbook under the Mac OS is a small Desk Accessory which enables users to store images, text and sound clippings. ...

After a shakeup in the Apple II team and at Hertzfeld's request, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs added him to the newly formed Macintosh team in February, 1981. Working for Bud Tribble alongside Bill Atkinson and Burrell Smith, Hertzfeld became a primary software architect of the Macintosh Operating System, which was considered revolutionary in its use of the graphical user interface (GUI) where Jef Raskin also made significant contributions. Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Guy Bud Tribble, MD, PhD, is Vice President of Software Technology at Apple Computer. ... Bill Atkinson worked at Apple Computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... Burrell who worked at apple, and designed the digital board for the original Macintosh. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices which employ graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called widgets, along with text labels or text navigation to represent the information and actions available to... Jef Raskin outdoors, photographed by his son Aza Raskin. ...

After Apple (1984–present)

Hertzfeld wrote Revolution in the Valley, a book containing anecdotes of how the Mac was made.

Since leaving Apple in 1984, Hertzfeld has co-founded three new companies — Radius (1986), General Magic (1990) and Eazel (1999). At Eazel, he helped to create the Nautilus file manager for Linux's GNOME desktop. He volunteered for OSAF in 2002 and 2003, writing early prototypes of their information manager. In 1996, Hertzfeld was interviewed by Robert Cringely on the television show Triumph of the Nerds, and was again interviewed by Cringely on NerdTV in 2005. Year 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar). ... Radius was a computer hardware firm founded by Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Mike Boich, Matt Carter, Alain Rossman and other members of the original Mac team specialising in Macintosh equipment. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... General Magic was a company co-founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat that developed new kind of handheld communications device they called a personal intelligent communicator, which was a PDA precursor that stressed communications. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Eazel was a computer software company based in Mountain View, California. ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... Nautilus is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of Mark Stephens, a computer journalist and broadcaster. ... Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires is a documentary film written and hosted by Robert X. Cringely. ...

In early 2004, he started folklore.org, a web site devoted to collective storytelling that contains dozens of anecdotes about the development of the original Macintosh. The stories have been collected in an O'Reilly book, Revolution in the Valley, published in December 2004. In August 2005, Hertzfeld joined Google.^[1]
A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... An anecdote is a short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident. ... Programming Perl is a classic OReilly book. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Google, Inc. ...

References

• Hertzfeld, Andy (2004). Revolution in the Valley. O'Reilly Books. ISBN 0-596-00719-1. 
• Deutschman, Alan (2000). The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0433-8.

1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/technology/22google.html

OReilly Coat of Arms OReilly is the patronymic form of Reilly. ...

External links

• Differnet.com — Andy Hertzfeld's personal homepage; a collection of websites either designed and/or hosted by him
• Folklore.org — A collection of first-hand accounts of the early days of the Macintosh
• NerdTV interview (September 2005) with Hertzfeld by PBS's Robert X. Cringely, available in audio, video, and text transcript
• ITConversations - Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Andy Hertzfeld