The historical context for the Apple '1984' ad was that in that era, most computing was locked up in Mainframe operations. There was a crew with labcoats on who where the only people allowed to touch actual computer hardware. If you needed a printout, you filled out a form and put it in the basket next to the half-door that separated 'users' from the IT staff.

Microsoft and Apple were both 'liberating' from that computer culture, with the notion of everybody having their own computer on their desk.

The 'IBM