Apple Computer was originally founded by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs in 1976. Wozniak and Jobs had been friends in high school, and they shared an interest in electronics. They both eventually dropped out of college and worked for electronics companies, Wozniak at Hewlett-Packard and Jobs at Atari. Wozniak, who experimented in computer design, built the prototype for the Apple I in his garage in early 1976. Jobs saw the potential of the Apple I, and he insisted that he and Wozniak try to sell the machine.

The computer world did not take the Apple I very seriously, and it saw limited success. When the Apple II debuted in 1977, things changed dramatically. The first personal computer to include color graphics, the Apple II was an impressive machine. Orders for Apple machines grew rapidly, and with the introduction of the Apple Disk II, an inexpensive machine with an easy-to-use...