68 Developing the Desktop Computer

Can you remember a time without computers? Large computers have been around for many years. But small ones, the desktop kind, are a fairly new invention.

Two people who helped make small computers popular are Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. The two technology buffs began designing their first computer in Jobs’s bedroom. (They actually built it in Jobs’s parents’ garage.) That computer was the Apple I, and it was mostly a toy. The next year, 1977, they put out the Apple II. It was the first easy-to-use desktop computer and became a huge seller.

Apple Computer, Inc., took the computer world by storm. IBM, which made big computers, did not even enter the desktop computer market until several years later.

In 1984 Apple introduced their latest innovation: the Macintosh. Like the Apple II, it was an easy-to-use computer. It was the first computer to show icons such as the “Trash” container on the screen. It was the first popular computer to use a mouse. The icons and mouse made it easy to do things like move and save files. A person could work without memorizing a lot of confusing keyboard commands.

Wozniak and Jobs did not stay with the company they founded. And as time went on, the company was less successful. But their new ideas changed computer use. They were instrumental in bringing the Computer Age into people’s businesses and homes.

68 台式電腦的研發

你還記得沒有電腦的時代嗎？大型電腦已經存在很多年了。但小型電腦，也就是台式機，是一項相對較新的發明。

幫助小型電腦普及的兩個人是史蒂文·喬布斯和斯蒂芬·沃茲尼亞克。這兩位技術愛好者在喬布斯的臥室裡開始設計他們的第一台電腦。（他們實際上是在喬布斯父母的車庫裡組裝的。）那台電腦是Apple I，它基本上就是個玩具。第二年，也就是1977年，他們推出了Apple II。它是第一台易於使用的台式電腦，並成為了暢銷產品。

蘋果電腦公司轟動了整個電腦界。生產大型電腦的IBM，幾年後才進入台式電腦市場。

1984年，蘋果推出了他們最新的創新產品：麥金塔電腦。和Apple II一樣，它是一台易於使用的電腦。它是第一台在屏幕上顯示諸如“垃圾桶”容器這類圖標的電腦，也是第一台普及使用鼠標的電腦。圖標和鼠標讓移動、保存文件這類操作變得簡單。人們無需記住大量複雜的鍵盤指令就能操作。

沃茲尼亞克和喬布斯並沒有留在他們創建的公司裡。隨著時間推移，這家公司的業績變得沒那麼出色了。但他們的新想法改變了電腦的使用方式。他們在將電腦時代帶入人們的商務活動和家庭生活中發揮了重要作用。