The Computer History Museum has released the first of two transcripts from an oral history interview with Andy Hertzfeld, conducted by curator Hansen Hsu. The document, catalogued as 300000188 and dated September 24, 2025, runs 43 pages and covers Hertzfeld's path from graduate student to Apple engineer.

Hertzfeld was born in 1953 in Philadelphia. He studied applied math and computer science at Brown University, then began a PhD in computer science at Berkeley. Watching the Apple II launch in 1977 pulled him away from academia: he started writing and selling software for the machine before Apple hired him in 1979 to work on the Apple II team.

At Apple, Hertzfeld befriended engineer Burrell Smith and followed him onto the fledgling Macintosh team, becoming its second software engineer. He ported the QuickDraw graphics library from the Lisa to the Macintosh and wrote much of the Macintosh Toolbox along with several desk accessories. A conflict with manager Bob Belleville pushed him out of Apple shortly after the Macintosh shipped in 1984.

Free of Apple, Hertzfeld wrote Switcher, the first utility to let a Macintosh run more than one program at a time, foreshadowing today's multitasking. He also helped organize the 1984 Hacker's Conference. The English-language transcript sits in the CHM's Oral History Collection alongside subject tags for UC Berkeley, the Apple II, Apple Lisa and NeXT, hinting at ground the second part may cover.