THE MAC                                                                             

     For many years, home computers have become synonymous with Windows and Bill Gates, but there has always been a loyal band of Apple and Macintosh users, whose devotion to the AppIe brand and its cofounder Steven Jobs is a commitment.

    Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak dropped out of school and got jobs in Silicon Valley, where they founded the Apple Computer company in 1976, the name based on Jobs' favorite fruit. They designed the "Apple I" computer in Jobs' garage, having raised the capital by selling their most valued possessions -an old Volkswagen bus and a scientific calculator. The later model, the Apple Macintosh, introduced the public to point and click graphics. It was the first home computer to be truly user friendly.

    When IBM released its first PC in 1981, Jobs realized that Apple would have to become a more grown-up company in order to compete effectively. He brought in John Sculley, the president of Pepsi-Cola, to do the job, asking him, "Do you want to just sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"