Clippy

Two 'Clippy' stories January 2014 - April 2017

Clippy

Creator of Microsoft’s infamous ‘Clippy’ tool talks designing the character on a Mac & more

Chance Miller Apr 26 2017 - 6:36 pm PT

One of the most iconic pieces of software design ever is the Clippy (or Clippit) assistant that was baked into Microsoft Office up until 2007. Users had and still have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Clippy. Despite the assistant no longer being included in Microsoft Office, Clippy has lived on with a variety of different fan-made renditions, fiction stories, and more.

Now, the original illustrator of Clippy, Kevan Atteberry, has sat down with Motherboard for a full interview…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Steve Jobs was almost Clippy and other things learned from prototype Twiggy Macs

Zac Hall Jan 31 2014 - 11:39 am PT

6 Comments

Steve Sez

Just months before the original Mac debuted 30 years ago, it was deeply troubled by an in-house 5.25″ flimsy floppy-disk drive it relied on called the Twiggy (you know, for it’s flimsiness). This was replaced by a more stable 3-inch Sony drive before shipping, but the Twiggy Macs had more than just a different drive.

Interestingly, the operating system featured a Steve Jobs rendtion of Microsoft’s dreaded, now retired Clippy assistant. The Ashton Kutcher resemblance has never been clearer… er… pixelated.

Check out the full article for other tidbits at Cult of Mac (via Daring Fireball).