I hate to be a niggler, but get the spelling of the man's name correct.

Mr. Harris raises a valid concern. This obviously isn't a typo, as it's consistent throughout.

My favorite Apple and Mac book is "Infinite Loop: How Apple, The World's Most Insanely Great Computer Company, Went Insane" by Michael Malone. Alan Deutchman's "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" works well as a companion to Malone's book.

The Mac Daddy and the nurturing Father?
To my mind there is a shared paternity, but I agree with Mr Hertzfield, the final title of 'founding Mac father' should go to Steve Jobs, with the title of "daddy" of the Mac, perhaps to Jeff Raskin, because of the birth pangs.
Jeff Raskin was there driving the birth of the project, and is true Steve Jobs bit the bullet and his splendid marketing skills bought the Mac project to fruition. The bone of contention I understand from what I was told by those in the know in the eighties, speaking to others and Raskin himself was the too and fro over the GUI. In fact a conversation I had with Raskin in the mid eighties confirmed to me Jeff had come to a point where he did not like the GUI, and that I did not agree with and said that to him, but it did not stop me from being greatful that the project was started in the first place. Whilst I understand Jeff Raskin saw the conception of the Mac and against a lot of opposition, others and finally Steve bought the babe to childhood and now since his return, we have seen Apple return to a real force because Steve understands the user Market and also the unique facility of great design and a philosophy of powerful user interest.
I have written about my encounter with Mr Raskin <http://dbatrium.blogspot.com/2005/02/mac-milestone.html> and as an Architect whose whole live revolves around graphics, it is the sparkle of invention, which has kept me with Apple systems since 1980 and from the Lisa a graphics platform to the iMac G5 and Mac mini, iBook today in my semi retirement I am going 63 next month. <http://dbatrium.blogspot.com/2005/02/macs-and-some-apple-memories.html>
In our one meeting Jeff Raskin said to me he did not like the fact that I regarded the GUI as a real winner. I still think it was and is, but I do recognize that Jeff Raskin was a great man, a brilliant thinker and at least the conception father of the Mac (daddy), a great and clever thinker and have written so. But for my revealed thoughts Steve Jobs (approved of reared the child), The Woz and Andy Hertzfield, do have profound paternity rights which bought a project that could have been still born, to a brilliant reality. The Mac as an appliance lived in 1984 and commanded immense interest, I know I lived through every painful step as a user. Afterwards that appliance for the knowledge worker philosophy was to an extent denuded, and some important direction was lost but was regained when the original iMac, then the appliance iPod and the iMac G5 appliance appeared, not to mention the amazing Mac mini. At last we have a return to the marketing principles which saw the original Mac as such a winner. That banner in my opinion rests with Steve as foundation father because Steve Jobs truly knows his old strategies really work if others allow them too. As a long time user of the Mac graphic based system I would never buy any other type of system because in the long run Mac systems, actually work, have great stable software, are beautifully designed, and are intrinsically very interesting indeed, and think differently does work.
That old formula of success has begun to sparkle and now there is no doubt who is the Mac's father.
That is my take
JJ

Jef Raskin is the "natural" father of the Mac. The Mac was Jef's idea.

Steve Jobs is the step-father.

Further to my comments, I find it hard to do justice to this subject in small type at my age it is hard to see and correct my typing errors. So I have blogged an answer based on the above.
It can be found at.<http://dbatrium.blogspot.com/2005/03/mac-daddy-and-nurturing-father.html> re: Jef Raskin as Daddy and the Mac Paternity discussion.
JJ

I think Jef Raskin was more like the mother, having given birth to the Macintosh project, while Steve Jobs is like the encouraging father who provided financial support and drove baby Macintosh to school every day and taught him how to catch a ball.

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madgunde wrote:
I think Jef Raskin was more like the mother, having given birth to the Macintosh project, while Steve Jobs is like the encouraging father who provided financial support and drove baby Macintosh to school every day and taught him how to catch a ball.

Father of the Mac and Mac Daddy sits fine with me. There is always someone who carries the analogies too far and turns something simple into a gender thing. We have father of the steam engine why not of the Mac and Daddy is a handle that depicts care and other such niceties.

I don't think any one (or even two) can be given credit for the Macintosh. There are contributions by too many people that were necessary. Remove Raskin, Jobs, Xerox, Woz, the Lisa team, or any of the other processor-based advances of the period, and you wouldn't have the same machine.

Apple Computer is the father of the Macintosh. It was a product from a company that recognized the power of a computer built for productivity in the hands of the ordinary user.

The Macintosh is not like the telephone or the light bulb. You can't call it an invention that was the brain-child of one inventor. There may be a limited number of folks without whom it would not exist, but they weren't the ones who actually built it. They were the ones who discovered it by putting together the right pieces in the right place at the right time.

Perhaps that would be the better title to look for. Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin weren't the parents of the Macintosh. They discovered the Macintosh.

Wow, now that's headed into true Mac-cult-fanatic-wacko territory -- "My platform wasn't invented! It was, is, and even shall be! Praise be to the Icon!"

... Monday morning coffee, also a fantastic discovery.

They hate that!

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jeffharris wrote:
I hate to be a niggler, but get the spelling of the man's name correct.

The Mac was the result of a lot of effort by a lot of very smart people. The GUI is great, but is lost without the engineering effort to make it possible. The design team came up with the form. Too many people for any one to claim the paternal rights so I appreciate the team effort that created the Mac.

I believe that with a lot of major products, like the Mac, the real key is that someone has to put their head on the chopping block and say "let's do it". It also helps if this person maintains continual involvement to ensure it is done as well as it possibly can. Unfortunately there are too few CEO's today that are willing to make these types of decisions.

I think MacObserver needs a dedicated proofreading department. I have been seeing WAY too many errors. lol Rushing to meet the deadline? hehe There is no press! there is no press guys!

Steve had to be 'converted' to the cause... he eventually saw the light, but Raskin believed from Day One.

Gotta go with Raskin on this... he's the true 'Father of the Mac'. But Steve helped lots when he finally 'got' it.

>Guest wrote: We have father of the steam engine why not of the Mac

>swtzrs wrote: The Macintosh is not like the telephone or the light bulb. You can't call it an invention that was the brain-child of one inventor

All of these inventions involved many people in different countries: for the steam engine they include Papin, Savery,Newcomen and Watt, for the telephone Reis and Bell, for the light bulb Swan and Edison claim credit. I go along with JJ above: several people were involved in bringing out the Mac, and all deserve credit, not least SJ.