A popular model of computer made by Apple Computer. Introduced in 1984, the Macintosh features a graphical user interface (GUI) that utilizes windows,icons, and a mouse to make it relatively easy for novices to use the computer productively. Rather than learning a complex set of commands, you need only point to a selection on a menu and click a mouse button.
Mac was designed to provide users with a natural, intuitively understandable, and, in general, "user-friendly" computer interface. Many of the user interface ideas in the Macintosh derived from experiments at the Xerox Parc laboratory in the early 1970s, including the mouse, the use of icons to represent objects or actions, the point-and-click and click-and-drag actions, and a number of window operation ideas. Microsoft successfully adapted these user interface concepts for its first Windows operating system.
The Macintosh runs on its own operating system, Mac OS (currently Mac OS X). The Mac originally ran on Motorola's 68000 series microprocessors and then moved to the PowerPCprocessor. Current models use Intel x86 processors.
Moreover, the GUI is embedded into the operating system. This means that allapplications that run on a Macintosh computer have a similar user interface. Once a user has become familiar with one application, he or she can learn new applications relatively easily. The success of the Macintosh GUI heralded a new age of graphics-based applications and operating systems. The Windows interface copies many features from the Mac.
There are many different Macintosh models, with varying degrees of speed and power. All models are available in many different configurations. All models since 1994 are based on the PowerPC microprocessor.
The Macintosh product line includes:
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