The Register recently featured a nice article by Bob Dorman about the 30th anniversary of the Apple Lisa computer. At the close of the article the author includes the following citation:
A hat tip to the folks behind the ftp.apple.asimov.net site, a huge resource of information related to early Apple products.
I decided to explore the ftp site and discovered a treasure trove of information for any Apple historian.
One of the gems I discovered was the first name of the Macintosh, included in a document compiled by Jef Raskin in February, 1980 entitled The Macintosh Project – Selected Papers.
On the 8th page of this document is a copy of a memo whose first section is CHANGE OF NAME (see picture above). As you can see, Macintosh began life at Apple under the project code name of “Annie,” following a convention of using female names for major products in development.
When you get a chance take some time to click on the link above and enjoy viewing the myriad of historical documents and pictures carefully assembled for posterity.
