Apple Macintosh is 40 years old today. Far from being the first home computer, the Macintosh has become one of the most famous: Launched in January 1984, the Macintosh became famous as a computer that could compete with the IBM-compatible PCs that were all the rage at the time. Or perhaps it was the Super Bowl ads inspired by George Orwell's "1984" that drew audiences.

"On January 24, Apple Computer will unveil the Macintosh. And you'll see why it won't be like '1984,'" the ad read.

To understand the Macintosh, one must understand what Apple was working on in the early 1980s. The California-based company had introduced a graphical user interface with the Apple Lisa, and a man named Steve Jobs was particularly interested in the Lisa's GUI. However, the Lisa itself never took the market by storm. According to Alex Wiltshire's "Home Computer," the Lisa was an expensive machine, with the first model costing nearly $10,000 and a cheaper version a year later costing $3,500: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation), the price was nearly $10,000.

If Apple wanted to compete with the IBM PC, which was introduced in 1981, it would not be ready in time, and a wave of IBM-compatible PCs with Microsoft software would begin.

The Macintosh was developed in parallel with the Lisa and was much cheaper than the Lisa, even though it used the same Motorola processor. and came with its own GUI and two applications designed to show off all that the Macintosh had to offer: MacPaint and MacWrite.

The Macintosh was a ready-to-use box that included a 512 x 342 monochrome display and a mouse, which greatly contributed to the mass sales of the Macintosh.

Steve Jobs also spoke of the Macintosh in his famous style, which would later become even more popular with the invention of the iPhone; IBM was the bad guy, Big Blue, Big Brother; Apple was the cool, independent, exciting Macintosh They are the only ones who can stop it.

Of course, Apple will end up with by far the most closed ecosystem after Microsoft, which has made its software widely available on every PC. Ironic...

That said, I am not here to blackmail Apple, even though this machine would ultimately lead to the Mac vs. PC debate and years of tribalism. The Macintosh, like many other computers of its time, was a defining moment for the industry, proving that GUIs are far, far better than command line interfaces (apologies to hardcore Linux users) Without the Macintosh, we would not have the GUI as we are accustomed to it might have existed.