Pioneering Apple engineer Bill Atkinson dies at 74

Invoice Atkinson, an engineer who performed a key position within the improvement of the Macintosh and different landmark Apple merchandise, has died of pancreatic most cancers. 

After Atkinson’s household announced his passing on Facebook, Wired’s Steven Levy offered an overview of Atkinson’s many accomplishments as Apple worker quantity 51 . Along with the Macintosh, the Apple tasks he both created or contributed to incorporate the Lisa pc, QuickDraw, the Magic Slate (a precursor of the iPad), and HyperCard (a precursor to the World Huge Internet).

Atkinson, who was 74, finally grew to become keen about nature images and, when he was recognized with most cancers final 12 months, wrote on Fb that he had “already led a tremendous and fantastic life.”

In a post on X, Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner described Atkinson as “a real visionary whose creativity, coronary heart, and groundbreaking work on the Mac will eternally encourage us.” And Daring Fireball’s John Gruber wrote that “with no hyperbole,” Atkinson “might nicely have been one of the best pc programmer who ever lived.”