June 29, 1998: Glenn Reid Tastes the Apple

In the olden days Apple programmers were exalted with such niceities as placing their name on the mold for the original Mac or getting some credit in the "About" box of a program. Sadly, Apple programmers, even those who do something very special, get much less credit today.

One of the most overlooked programmers has to be Glenn Reid. Glenn's overlooked claim to fame, iMovie, is the program that set the bar for all the iLife apps. Originally, iMovie was a freebie for Mac users but the price was not indicative of the power. Glenn and his team managed to put together a program that rivaled video studios, cost tens of thousands of dollars, and kept the process so easy that just about anyone could make a professional looking movie with little more than a Mac, a digital video camera and good lighting.

Glenn Reid managed to do a lot more than code the best consumer grade film-editing program to date; he was also responsible for iPhoto and later iterations of iMovie. The programmer who defined the Mac's iLife strategy began work at Apple on June 29, 1998. Word is that he spent most of the first day filling out forms, but after that it was pure gold!