HyperCard

"Simply put, HyperCard is a software erector set that lets non-programmers put together interactive information"

https://etched.page/cbc50989408335b48d06d5aa2eb62e71a73135021d4d6e849573184c6a6a8e70/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/25-years-of-hypercard-the-missing-link-to-the-web/

https://etched.page/59937361c267e45997f3ef3cc185fe56935e485eb11635e5fc1ce5a2d03face3/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard

An OS, browser-native remake via
@ViperCardDotNet
how fun vipercard.net

"Mr. Jobs had a perfectly logical reason to prune the Apple tree thus. He returned the company to its original vision:the personal computer as a consumer appliance,a black box enforcing a very traditional relationship between the vendor and the purchaser."

...A train which goes only where rails have been laid down, like any train, and can travel elsewhere only after rivers of sweat pour forth from armies of laborers. (Preferably in Cupertino.)"

"The Apple of Steve Jobs needed HyperCard-like products like the Monsanto Company needs a $100 home genetic-engineering set."

Naturally, the @internetarchive has it available to play with in the browser as well, since they're consistently amazing at making cool old stuff accessible https://t.co/sHoncl2GrD

Atkinson recalled engineers at Apple drawing network schematics in the form of a bunch of boxes linked together. Sun engineers, however, first drew the network's backbone and then hung boxes off of it.

Run it yourself?

68k Mac emulator: https://basilisk.cebix.net
Copy of HyperCard: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/hypercard-241

"Jobs supposedly claimed that he intended his personal computer to be a “bicycle for the mind.” But what he really sold us was a (fairly comfortable) train for the mind...

Some instructions, and some speculation as to the reasons for HyperCard's demise... https://etched.page/ed08e6787ed11dcf37528276bf5852e0afa48f54aa10f53088ff7d7e0e520ae6/http://www.loper-os.org/?p=568

Atkinson on not realizing the potential of HyperCard: "...I missed the mark with HyperCard. I grew up in a box-centric culture at Apple. If I'd grown up in a network-centric culture, like Sun, HyperCard might have been the first Web browser."