Oral History of Andy Hertzfeld Part 1 of 2

Interviewed by Hansen Hsu on 2025-09-24 © Computer History Museum Andy Hertzfeld was born in 1953 in Philadelphia, studied applied math and CS at Brown, and pursued a PhD in CS at Berkeley. After seeing the Apple II debut in 1977, he started writing, publishing and selling Apple II software. Hired by Apple in 1979 initially in the Apple II team, Hertzfeld befriended and aided Burrell Smith in the Macintosh team and eventually joined him there, becoming its second software engineer. Hertzfeld completed the port of QuickDraw from Lisa to Macintosh and wrote much of the Toolbox code and many desk accessories. Conflict with manager Bob Belleville contributed to Hertzfeld leaving Apple after the Macintosh launch. Afterwards, Hertzfeld developed Switcher, which allowed multitasking on the Macintosh for the first time, and helped organize the 1984 Hacker’s Conference. Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collec... Catalog number: 300000189 Acquisition number: 2025.0173