Andrew Jay Hertzfeld (born April 6, 1953) is an American
software engineer and
innovator who was a member of the original
Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...
development team during the 1980s. After buying an
Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
from August 1979 until March 1984, where he was a
designer for the Macintosh system software. Since leaving Apple, he has co-founded three companies:
Radius
In classical geometry, a radius (plural, : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', ...
in 1986,
General Magic in 1990, and
Eazel
Eazel was an American software company operating from 1999 to 2001 in Palo Alto and then Mountain View, California. The company's flagship product is the Nautilus file manager for the GNOME desktop environment on Linux, which was immediately adopt ...
in 1999. In 2002, he helped
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor ( ; born November 1, 1950) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding Lotus, where he was instrumental in deve ...
promote
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
software with the
Open Source Applications Foundation
The Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) was a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by Mitch Kapor whose purpose was to effect widespread adoption of free software/ open-source software.
History
Founded in 2002 by Mitch Kapor to effe ...
. Hertzfeld worked at
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
from 2005 to 2013, where in 2011, he was the key designer of the Circles
user interface in
Google+.
Career
Apple Computer (1979–1984)
After graduating from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
with a
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
degree in 1975, Hertzfeld attended
graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
. In 1978, he bought an
Apple II computer and soon began developing software for it. He went on to write for ''
Call-A.P.P.L.E.
''Call-A.P.P.L.E.'' is the monthly journal publication of the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (or ''A.P.P.L.E.'') The magazine was published from 1978 until 1990 when it was discontinued; after a 12-year lapse publication was restart ...
'' and ''
Dr. Dobb's Journal'' and soon came to the attention of Apple Computer.
He was hired by Apple Computer as a systems programmer in 1979 and developed the
Apple Silentype printer
firmware and wrote the firmware for the
Sup'R'Terminal The M&R Enterprises Sup'R'Terminal was the first Apple II peripheral card to enable the display of 80 columns of text on a connected monitor. The Sup'R'Terminal is compatible with slot 03 in the Apple II and II+. As the first card making 80 columns ...
, the first 80-column card for the Apple II. In the early 1980s, he invited his high school friend, artist
Susan Kare, to join Apple in order to help design what would become standard Macintosh icons.
With the first Macintosh, Hertzfeld wrote an icon editor and font editor so that Susan Kare could design the symbols used in the operating system.
Hertzfeld was a member of the
Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...
design team.
After a shakeup in the Apple II team and Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...
's brief departure from the company due to a plane crash,
co-founder
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
took control of the nearly two-year-old Macintosh team in February 1981 and added Hertzfeld to it at his request. Working for
Bud Tribble alongside
Bill Atkinson and
Burrell Smith
Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is an American engineer who, while working at Apple Computer, designed the motherboard (digital circuit board) for the original Macintosh. He was Apple employee #282, and was hired in February 1979, ...
, Hertzfeld became a primary
software architect of the
Macintosh Operating System, which was considered revolutionary in its use of the
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, ins ...
(GUI) where
Jef Raskin
Jef Raskin (born Jeff Raskin; March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American human–computer interface expert best known for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s.
Early life and education
Jef Raskin ...
also made contributions.
Hertzfeld's business card at Apple listed his title as ''Software Wizard''. He wrote large portions of the Macintosh's original system software, including much of the
ROM code, the User Interface Toolbox, and a number of innovative components now standard in many graphic user interfaces, like the
Control Panel and
Scrapbook.
After Apple (1984–present)
After leaving Apple in 1984, Hertzfeld co-founded three new companies –
Radius
In classical geometry, a radius (plural, : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', ...
(1986),
General Magic (1990), and
Eazel
Eazel was an American software company operating from 1999 to 2001 in Palo Alto and then Mountain View, California. The company's flagship product is the Nautilus file manager for the GNOME desktop environment on Linux, which was immediately adopt ...
(1999).
At Eazel, he helped to create the
Nautilus file manager
GNOME Files, formerly and internally known as Nautilus, is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop. Nautilus was originally developed by Eazel with many luminaries from the tech world including Andy Hertzfeld (Apple), chief architect for ...
for
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
's
GNOME
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...
desktop. He volunteered for the
Open Source Applications Foundation
The Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) was a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by Mitch Kapor whose purpose was to effect widespread adoption of free software/ open-source software.
History
Founded in 2002 by Mitch Kapor to effe ...
in 2002 and 2003, writing early prototypes of
Chandler, their information manager. In 1996, Hertzfeld was interviewed by
Robert Cringely on the television documentary ''
Triumph of the Nerds'', and was again interviewed by Cringely on NerdTV in 2005.
In early 2004, he starte
folklore.org a Web site devoted to collective storytelling that contains dozens of anecdotes about the development of the
original Macintosh. The stories have been collected in an
O'Reilly book, ''
Revolution in the Valley'', published in December 2004.
In August 2005, Hertzfeld joined
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. On June 28, 2011,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
announced
Google+, its latest attempt at social networking. Hertzfeld was the key designer of the Google+ Circles interface. He also worked on
Picasa
Picasa was a cross-platform image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, integrated with a now defunct photo-sharing website, originally created by a company named Lifescape (which at that time was incubated by I ...
, and Gmail's profile image selector. He retired from Google in July 2013.
As of October 2018, he is an investor of the startup Spatial.
Portrayals
Hertzfeld was portrayed by
Elden Henson in the 2013 film ''
Jobs''. He was later played by actor
Michael Stuhlbarg in the 2015 film ''
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
''.
Hertzfeld stated "almost nothing in it is how it really happened" about the ''Steve Jobs'' film, and that the film ultimately was not aiming for realism.
Personal life
Hertzfeld and his wife live in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was es ...
.
[
]
References
General references
*
*
Inline citations
External links
Differnet.com
– Andy Hertzfeld's personal homepage; a collection of Web sites designed and/or hosted by him
*
Revolution in the Valley
' - Andy Hertzfeld's book about the development of the Macintosh.
Folklore.org
– Macintosh Folklore, a web site that contains all of the stories in the book, and more
(September 2005) with Hertzfeld by PBS's Robert X. Cringely, available in audio, video, and text transcript
ITConversations
Dr. Moira Gunn
Moira Gunn is both an academic and a professional journalist. She is perhaps best known as the host of the public radio program Tech Nation, its regular segment BioTech Nation, as well as the weekly tech-sci commentary, Five Minutes. It airs on ...
speaks with Andy Hertzfeld
John Wants AnswersInterview
with Andy Hertzfeld along with Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...
and Daniel Kottke about the biopic '' Jobs''. (Episode 041 (4.5) - September 30, 2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hertzfeld, Andy
1953 births
Living people
20th-century American inventors
21st-century American inventors
Brown University alumni
Apple Inc. employees
Web developers
Computer programmers
Google employees
Interface designers
Macintosh operating systems people
Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area
University of California, Berkeley alumni