The Introduction of the “Desktop”

Macworld, looking back at their very first issue 25 years ago:

A lot of the ideas introduced in that first issue seem remarkably normal today. The very first feature article, “A Tour of the Mac Desktop” by longtime Macworld contributor Lon Poole, includes an illustration of features I can see on my Mac screen today: a menu bar with an Apple logo in the left corner, a window full of files and folders represented by icons and names, and a desktop area.

The difference, of course, is that today these concepts are absolutely common. Back in 1984, that first article had to carefully explain the concept of the desktop; its entire first page was devoted to a complicated metaphor about trying to drive a car with a keyboard instead of a steering wheel.

And today, dozens of companies are still trying to figure out why Apple’s user interfaces are just so damn good.