MacWrite was a WYSIWYG word processor application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. Together with MacPaint, it was one of the two original "killer applications" that propelled the adoption and popularity of the GUI in general, and the Mac in particular.

MacWrite was spun off to Claris, who released a major update in 1989 as MacWrite II. A further series of improvements produced 1993's MacWrite Pro, but further improvements were few and far between. By the mid 1990s, MacWrite was no longer a serious contender in the word processing market, and development ended around 1995.

When the Mac was first being created it was clear that users would interact with it differently from other personal computers. Typical computers of the era booted into DOS or BASIC, requiring the users to type in commands to run programs, or even type in the programs themselves. On the Mac, users would instead be expected to stay in the GUI both for launching and running programs.

This presented a problem to Apple: the Mac was due to be launched in 1983 (originally), but no third-party software would be available for it, nor could users easily write their own. Users would end up with a computer that did nothing. In order to fill this void several members of the Mac team took it upon themselves to write simple applications to fill these roles until third-party developers published more full-fledged software. The result was MacWrite and MacPaint, which shipped free with every Macintosh from 1984 to 1986.

George Petros is an American art designer, author, illustrator and editor.

In 1984, Petros (with Adam Parfrey) created EXIT, a New York-based journal featuring contributions from Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Lydia Lunch, Joe Coleman, J. G. Thirlwell (Foetus), Genesis P-Orridge, H. R. Giger, Michael Andros, Boyd Rice, Robert R. Votta, Mark David Chapman, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Marilyn Manson, Richard Ramirez, Michael Moynihan, James Mason, and Sal Canzonieri - writer/artist/editor. The final issue was published in 1994.

While producing EXIT, Petros also served as an editor at Seconds, the New York-based music magazine (founded in 1986 by Steven Blush) published until 2000.

From 2000 until 2005, Petros served as a contributing editor of Juxtapoz and the senior editor of Propaganda.

His work has appeared in Heavy Metal, Thrasher, Paper, Screw, Apocalypse Culture 2, Needles Ink, Juxtapoz, Propaganda and on Devo album covers.