Jeff Raskin died over the weekend in Pacifica. Mr Raskin started work at the early Apple and came up with the idea of introducing a computer for the masses which would be easy to use. The Macintosh turned out to be a machine which galvanized Microsoft's mind, and concentrated Intel's brain.

Raskin joined Apple Computer in 1978 as employee number 31 and headed the company's Macintosh development team from its founding until 1981.

It was his idea to name the computer after a special type of apple, but changed the spelling for copyright reasons.

Raskin is credited with important advances in the design of user interfaces, most of them being text-based only in the early '80s and were quite difficult to operate by the average user. Raskin convinced his peers at Apple that to reach a wider audience, the Macintosh needed an interface that was elegant and easy to use.

Raskin left Apple in 1981, two years before the Macintosh went on sale, but he continued to influence the design of computers interface through his writing, lectures, and consulting work.

Soon after leaving the company he founded Information Appliance, where he designed the Canon Cat computer for Canon USA, although the product was not a commercial success.

Among his consulting clients we name Intel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and many other big names in computing. In 2000 he published a book, "The Humane Interface," that is widely assigned at universities.