牛逼记者：30年前见证Mac诞生，30年后用Mac写纪念文章

“随后几十年，我与乔布斯进行过无数次对话，但1984年的那一次是最为难忘的一次……”

见证苹果Macintosh成长历程的记者史蒂芬·列维（Steven Levy）是美国《连线》杂志的资深记者，同时也是美国科技媒体中举足轻重的人物。在他数十年的从业经历中，对苹果的发展尤为关注，也曾多次对乔布斯进行过专访。《连线》杂志2014年第3期在苹果Macintosh电脑诞生30周年之际刊发了由列维撰写的专稿，他在这篇文章中详细描述了乔布斯在1984年发布首台 Macintosh电脑时的情形。

1984年并不像2014年，当乔布斯在那一年怀着极其激动的心情发布Macintosh电脑时，大多数人对这个新兴的玩意并不熟悉，所以如果乔布斯想要改变人们的传统看法，就必须让自己的产品能够足够吸引他们的目光。

尽管Macintosh在当时是一款全新的产品，但它所处的媒体界仍然比较古板落后，那时候没有科技博客、Facebook和Twitter，当然也没有关于Macintosh的流言网站，所以乔布斯不得不想方设法告诉全世界——他要在1984年1月24日这一天发布一款重量级的电脑产品——Macintosh。

在乔布斯为Macintosh发起的宣传攻势中，其中的一个重要组成部分就是聘请著名导演雷德利·斯科特（Ridley Scott）为苹果拍摄了无比经典的广告“1984”，并购买了1月22日第18届超级碗比赛一分半钟的广告时段来播放该广告，广告中用一位无名的女主角代表Macintosh的来临，而她将会从“老大哥（IBM）”中拯救人类，并掀起一场计算机行业的革命。

如今，可能已经没有几个人能记得当年参加超级碗的比赛双方都是哪支队伍，但却有不少人对“1984”记忆犹新，有的甚至能够逐字背诵该广告中唯一的广告语：“在1月24日，苹果公司将推出Macintosh计算机，届时您会看到1984为何不会像‘1984’。”

除此之外，乔布斯还策划了大规模的广告攻势，其中包括制作一本完整的小型期刊，与多份杂志捆绑销售。当然，正如他在以后日子中经常做的那样，乔布斯希望新闻媒体能够将报道的焦点放在他为这款产品所付出的努力上，他向《新闻周刊》和《滚石》等杂志讲述关于自己和Macintosh的故事等等，而那个时候我恰好是《滚石》杂志的撰稿人。

初识Macintosh

虽然《滚石》杂志主打流行音乐和青年文化，但由于当时硅谷关于苹果这台神秘机器的留言已经漫天飞，再加上我一直在密切关注计算机行业的发展，所以《滚石》决定对Macintosh的发布会进行报道。此前乔布斯还曾试图凭借Macintosh登上《滚石》的封面，最终在遭到否定后一直对此事耿耿于怀。

当我在发布会上第一次看到Macintosh的真机时，虽然也是丈二和尚摸不着头脑，但我的直觉告诉我这台机器将会在未来改变数百万人的人生，包括我自己。在1984年，个人电脑还是讳莫如深的“高级货”，它们的界面大多非常不友好，黑黑的屏幕上闪烁着绿油油的字，同时只会死板地执行一些固定的命令和程序。但Macintosh却与众不同，它不仅能将文字非常清晰地展示出来，同时还可以使用鼠标对文本进行选择和移动，再加上只有鞋盒大小的机箱，真的是让人爱不释手。

当时我还见到了Macintosh团队的成员，那是一帮充满激情的年轻人，他们都是《滚石》杂志的粉丝，还向我介绍称将摇滚的精神融入到了研发Macintosh的过程之中，正因为如此，我从一开始就对Macintosh团队就充满了好感，直到今天，他们中的一些人仍然是我的好友。

在参加一系列的会议之后，我获得了与乔布斯共进晚餐的机会。我不得不承认的是，当年我与他首次见面时并不愉快，当时他对没能登上《滚石》的封面非常生气，直接说那篇关于MTV的报道就是滥竽充数，但当我告诉他那篇文章是我撰写的之后，他并没有道歉，只是随即换了个话题而已。

乔布斯在这次晚餐上滔滔不绝地将自己的所思所想都说了出来。他先是将苹果比作一家“海盗”公司，他们敢于向权威发起挑战，在计算机行业掀起一场革命。接着他还埋怨称有许多人并不理解他呕心沥血创作出来的“作品”。最后乔布斯还谈到了苹果的未来，他希望苹果能够成为一家价值百亿的企业，同时更希望到那个时候苹果仍然没有失去它的灵魂。

在随后的几十年中，我与乔布斯进行过无数次对话，但1984年的那一次是最为难忘的一次，因为当时从他口中所讲出来的东西是那么新鲜有趣，不管是Macintosh及其团队，还是乔布斯本人，都让人感觉他们身上有种能够改变世界的潜质和能量。

结语

时至今日早已物是人非，曾经被苹果是为“眼中钉”的IBM已经摒弃了PC业务，而苹果也已经发展成为一家市值逼近6000亿美元的科技巨头。虽然乔布斯已经仙逝，但却为我们留下了一家光芒四射的公司和追求完美的灵魂。

让人感到欣慰的是，有一件事情在这30年间并没有改变，那就是Macintosh的优秀基因被苹果继承了下来，我们在如今的Macintosh电脑上仍然能够多少看到一些曾经的影子。而30年前见证Macintosh诞生的我，在30年后用自己的Macintosh写下了这篇纪念它的文章。

When Apple's Macintosh took on IBM, 'the Darth Vader of the digital world'

By STEVEN LEVY

October 6, 20112:50 PM ET

 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-birth-of-the-mac-rolling-stones-1984-feature-on-steve-jobs-and-his-whiz-kids-20111006#ixzz2vjWYkvZL

Steve Jobs, Chairman of Apple Computers,and John Sculley, Apple's president pose with the new Macintosh personalcomputer in New York.

Marilyn K. Yee/New York Times Co./Getty Images

This the future of computing.

Here in SiliconValley, there is a room ringed with nondescript cubicles. Each contains asmall, beige box not much bigger than two shoe boxes stood on end, a box thatemanates a whitish glow of a nine-inch video display. The box is a computercalled Macintosh, and the people who sit in the carpeted commons in the centerof the room are some of its designers. They call themselves pirates. On thewall is a skull-and-bones pirate flag; one of the skeleton's eyes has beenreplaced by the rainbow-colored Apple Computer logo.

They are ten wearycomputer wizards. Average age: well under thirty. Standard dress: blue jeansand T-shirt. Standard look in the eyes: crazed by fatigue. One of the wizards,blond-haired, twenty-two-year-old Randy Wigginton, has been riding thefluctuations in the word-processing program he's been writing for AppleComputer's messianic new machine for over two years. Now that it is two weeks fromhis absolutely, positively final deadline, his face has the dull pallor of atorture victim. His tormentors are two cheerful software hackers, dressed inshorts and hiking boots, who, at this intolerably late date, are blithelyrevamping the part of the computer operating system called "the Finder."

Despite thelooming deadline, things are upbeat. For many of the wizards, the bulk of thework is done. Burrell Smith, designer of the digital guts of the new computer,is already working on his next Apple project. Two key wizards who mastermindedthe "ROM" – the program on a chip that contains much of the magicwithin the computer – are here, but now they're assisting with softwaredebugging. The industrial designer who originally drafted the computer's simpleprofile is checking out the first run of casings from Apple's completelyautomated $20 million factory.

But the Finder,the part of the computer that greets the user and finds files, is not yet done.And if it doesn't get done, the programs won't work right, Macintosh will beseen as a dud, and Apple Computer – the one corporate nexus of vision andcapitalism, the dream company of the Eighties – could turn into a nightmare forthe billion-dollar firm's employees and investors. Worse, the personal-computerindustry would then be dominated – lock, stock and microprocessor – by IBM, theDarth Vader of the digital world.

This is the showdown at the Silicon Corral, and Apple has only one bullet left in itschamber against IBM's well-funded arsenal. That bullet is Macintosh. SteveJobs, the twenty-eight-year-old multimillionaire chairman of Apple's board ofdirectors, has staked his reputation (and the value of his approximately 7million Apple shares) on the machine. He describes the situation: "It's kindof like watching the gladiator going into the arena and saying, 'Here it is.'It's really perceived as Apple's do or die. And it goes even deeper... If wedon't do this, nobody can stop IBM."

Randy Wiggington,one of Jobs' wizards, is more succinct: "The whole company is on the line.It's put up or shut up."

Apple made a $400,000 tv Commercial thatran during the Super Bowl. The ad, in washed-out gray tones, shows rows androws of emaciated men with shaved heads, dressed in the faded pajamas ofconcentration camps. Inside a large auditorium, a Big Brother type on aprojection screen drones on about the triumphs of the electronic age. Thisscene is intercut with flashes of a stunning young woman in red gym shorts,sprinting like an Olympian and holding a sledgehammer. She rushes into theauditorium, swings the rope attached to the sledgehammer and flings it towardthe screen. Everything explodes in fiery light; the mouths of the stunnedmasses drop open in astonishment. There is transcendent, blazing chaos. Then thescreen goes black, and these words appear:

On January 24, Apple Computer willintroduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'

Can a $2500 computer, weighing undertwenty pounds and taking up no more desk space than a piece of paper, changethe world? Improve your life? Foil Orwell's prophecies? Save Apple from theclutches of IBM?

For your answer,meet Macintosh. Put in a three-and-a-half-inch disc, plug in the keyboard andthe "mouse" – the palm-sized device that moves a dark pointer aroundthe screen – and flick on the machine. That act alone may dispel your doubts

If you have had any prior experience with personal computers, what you might expect to see issome sort of opaque code, called a "prompt," consisting of phosphorescent green or white letters on a murky background. What you see withMacintosh is the Finder. On a pleasant, light background (you can later changethe background to any of a number of patterns, if you like), little picturescalled "icons" appear, representing choices available to you. Aword-processing program might be represented by a pen, while the program thatlets you draw pictures might have a paintbrush icon. A file would representstored documents – book reports, letters, legal briefs and so forth. To see aparticular file, you'd move the mouse, which would, in turn, move the cursor tothe file you wanted. You'd tap a button on the mouse twice, and the contents ofthe file would appear on the screen: dark on light, just like a piece of paper.

This seems simple,but most personal computers (including the IBM PC) can't do this.

And you are notlimited to type. A young wizard named Bill Atkinson has written a programcalled MacPaint, which allows you to draw intricate pictures using the mouse."Let me show you a bug" was his opening line to me, and within threeseconds, he had called to the screen a stunningly detailed picture of aninsect. Though Macintosh displays only black-and-white video, its "bitmapped" display (a "bit" in the computer controls 512 horizontaland 342 vertical dots on the screen) allows for gorgeously intricate pictures.Aided by all sorts of "whizzy" (a favorite adjective of the Mac team)features, even a graphic klutz can create fine drawings.

This creativeextension is the secret of Macintosh: it was not only designed to be easy tolearn for people who recoil at the thought of working a computer, but it'swhizzy enough to delight its designers. "We are bringing computers to thepeople for the first time," says Macintosh Software Wizard (as it says onhis card) Andy Hertzfeld. "We want the man on the street to get Mac andfeel the incredible potential. Like when I got my first stereo."

Mitch Kapor is notthe man on the street. He is the president of Lotus Development Corporation, asoftware company that has made its fortune by writing a best-selling programfor the IBM PC. But the first time he saw Macintosh, he was charmed."There's some magic," he says. "It's the first piece of hardwareI've been excited about in years."

He sums it up thisway: "The IBM PC is a machine you can respect. The Macintosh is a machineyou can love."

Mac's story gets to the soul of Apple, avolatile company attempting to maintain its initial idealism during a period ofunprecedented growth. The machine's development was, in turns, traumatic,joyful, grueling, lunatic, rewarding and ultimately the major event in thelives of almost everyone involved.

In 1979, Macintoshwas one of many small, low-priority projects at Apple; at the time, the firmwas only beginning to emerge as a leader in the personal-computer industry – aresult of the success of the Apple II computer, which Apple's founders, SteveWozniak and Steve Jobs, developed in a garage.

The Mac was firstconceived by a plump, bearded programmer and writer named Jef Raskin. Nowforty, Raskin had been an employee from the day that Apple first incorporated,in 1977. He fit in well with the informal atmosphere; in his contract, therewas a clause allowing him to attend rehearsals of the San Francisco ChamberOpera Company, which he conducted. Raskin had definite ideas about the nextsteps in computing, but as Apple grew, he saw few of his concepts implemented.The company was becoming drunk on its own success, as the vision of Wozniak andJobs became overwhelmed by bureaucracy and an urge for respectability in the"real world" of business. As the Seventies ended, Apple's big projectwas the Apple III: a computer that, as Randy Wiggington later said, "waskind of like a baby conceived during a group orgy, and [later] everybody hasthis bad headache and there's this bastard child, and everyone says, 'It's notmine.'" Because of a belief that everyone who worked there was a geniusand could therefore do anything, the Apple III was released before it workedproperly, and it flopped dismally.

The next year was not so easy. In the wake of the Apple III failure, there was a purge at Apple,after which president Mike Scott himself was ousted. At one point, theMacintosh project was terminated. Convinced of the project's importance,however, the team operated surreptitiously. "We'd lie low and sneak chipsout of other labs," says Smith. "We knew there was something specialabout Mac – here was a machine that was going to change the world."

Apple revived theproject, and early in 1981, Steve Jobs took a special interest in Macintosh. ToJef Raskin, Jobs' presence was an intrusion; he says that Jobs had originallyopposed the project, but "after it was clear that it was the mostinteresting thing at Apple, Steve Jobs took it over." It did not happenwithout a struggle. 

Steve Jobs wears a navy-blue sweater andjeans when we go out for pizza one night to talk about Macintosh. He tells methat until recently, he has avoided close contact with the press, especiallyafter a piece in Time magazine's "Machine of theYear" package last year. He felt Time both attacked himpersonally and criticized his management style. "I know what it's like tohave your private life painted in the worst possible light in front of a lot ofpeople," he says. "I've learned what it's like for everyone you meetafter that to sort of have preconceptions about you... It's been acharacter-building experience."

He is a man withsomething to prove. Everyone recognizes Jobs' contribution to the Apple II – heis generally given credit for the brilliant idea to put a computer in afriendly looking plastic casing, and he was the one who saw that it would takeexperienced professionals to sell the computer to the public. In 1976 and 1977,as a bearded, semiexperienced engineer who'd recently returned from a monasteryin India, he recruited that very kind of talent, and the result was theunprecedented success of the Apple II. Yet Apple's success is generallyattributed to the genius of Jobs' partner, Steve Wozniak. Woz's openheartednessand technical wizardry are legend in the Silicon Valley – in sharp contrast toJobs' darker reputation.

Steve Jobs puts itdifferently. "I have more money than I can ever give away in my lifetime.And I'm not doing this for my ego. There are other things I can think of doing.I could go fishing, or go to Italy, or race motorcycles, but that's not goingto result in what I really want."

What does Steve Jobs want? "To make Apple a great $10 billion company. Apple has theopportunity to set a new example of how great an American corporation can be,sort of an intersection between science and aesthetics. Something happens tocompanies when they get to be a few million dollars – their souls go away. Andthat's the biggest thing I'll be measured on: Were we able to grow a $10billion company that didn't lose its soul?"

To Jobs, Macintoshwill show how to achieve that task. As he speaks about it, his hawklikefeatures intensify, and he punctuates his speech with weighty pauses, accentedby sagacious nods. "Mac stands for what we are as a company – takingtechnology that's out of reach of the people and making it really great. That'swhat we did with the Apple II, and that's what we're going to do again withMac. Computers and society are out on a first date in this decade, and for somecrazy reason, we're in the right place at the right time to make that romanceblossom."

It was Jobs whoinsisted that the machine have "Lisa technology," using the powerfulMotorola 68000 microprocessor and such Lisa characteristics as the mouse,pull-down menus, onscreen windows and other features that assured the Mac wouldbe, as he put it, "insanely great" – the mostadvanced technology forthe cheapest price.

Jobs admits thathe can be tough on his team. "Sometimes it's necessary to consciously dothat," he says. "My best contribution to the group is not settlingfor anything but really good stuff. We must have remade the machine ten times.Each time it got better and better and better."

Bill Gates,chairman of Microsoft, one of the most important software companies in thecountry, has been observing the Macintosh program since 1981. "Peopleconcentrate on finding Jobs' flaws," he says, "but there's no way thisgroup could have done any of this stuff without Jobs. They really have workedmiracles." In fact, Gates thinks Jobs could slow down a bit. "Henever turns it off," Gates says. "He's always pushing."

Jobs has a reason."I don't want to sound arrogant," Jobs says, "but I know thisthing is going to be the next great milestone in this industry. Every bone inmy body says it's going to be great, and people are going to realize that andbuy it."

Apple's goal is to establish Macintosh asthe logical successor to the IBM PC and to its own Apple II. The company'sinternal Macintosh-marketing plan, a document loaded with military terms like"attack on launch" and "preemptive Lisa Technology," putsit on the line by saying that "failing to establish Macintosh as the thirdstandard product could significantly decelerate Apple's growth curve."What Apple is up against is what is commonly called the "FUDprinciple": the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt people have about computersthat makes them want to go with the tried-and-true company, IBM, even in theface of a technologically superior product like the Macintosh. Steve Jobs saysthat "the first hundred days are the key thing," and during thattime, Apple plans an advertising blitz that will, says the marketing plan,"make the introduction of Macintosh the biggest event in the history ofpersonal computing." Over $20 million in Macintosh television ads isbudgeted for this year.

Another essentialis the recruitment of outside companies to write software for Macintosh. Eachcomputer with a new kind of operating system requires new software, and of theprime indicators of any computer's success is the quality and quantity ofthird-party software for it: that's what made IBM's PC so popular. Macintoshmust do the same.

Still, there's thedanger that the machine might not work as promised in the crucial first fewmonths. That's what killed the Apple III. Almost every new computer has its shareof bugs, but in its zeal to keep making the machine insanely great, the Macteam did not allow time for extensive user testing of the finished version,especially in the case of the Finder. Six weeks before launch, Bill Gatescalled the situation "ridiculous," but still thought that Apple'swizardry would save the day, as did the overworked Mac team: "It'll beready," Bill Atkinson said definitively.

The worst possible nightmare, though,begins with everything going off without a hitch. Apple announces Macintosh atits January 24th stockholders meeting. The already completed computer-magazinecover stories appear with their inevitable accolades. The commercials run. Thedealers put the Macs on display, underneath the special Macintosh posterssupplied by Apple. The software packages begin to appear. Over fifty collegesstart using the massive numbers of Macs they have already ordered ... Andknowledge workers still persist in thinking of IBM's less sophisticatedofferings when they pick a computer. That's a nightmare.

"When westarted this project, IBM didn't have a machine. But we looked very carefullyat their PC when they released it," says Chris Espinosa. "At first,it was embarrassing how bad their machine was. Then we were horrified [at itssuccess]. We hope Macintosh will show people what the IBM was – a half-assed,hackneyed attempt at the old technology." If the world takes the troubleto turn on the Macintosh and looks at what it sees, there will now be two majorpersonal computer companies in this country. And one of them will be a companywith soul.