What does Mac mean?

[MacGiver]

As we are celebrating Mac's 25th anniversarry i wonder what Mac really means...I heard several things...

- Mouse Activated Computer
- Mac for Macintosh which is a Scottish apple type..

Where is the truth?
Thanks,
X

[bartelby]

Apparently it's because Jef Raskin's favourite apple was the McIntosh.

[rdowns]

Mac is short for Macintosh, the name of a line of computers Apple introduced 25 years ago.

[tMac85]

Mac is short for Macintosh, the name of a line of computers Apple introduced 25 years ago.

very well put. clean and simple. just enough to make the person go .....uh.... well **** that was obvious.

[Theophany]

I think Macintosh sounds better than Mac or iMac. Bring back the Apple Macintosh!! :p

[tMac85]

I think Macintosh sounds better than Mac or iMac. Bring back the Apple Macintosh!! :p

our country ( USA at least) is already to lazy as it is. adding 2 more syllables will just take up to much of our time.

[SlasherDuff]

I think Macintosh sounds better than Mac or iMac. Bring back the Apple Macintosh!! :p

I thought mac was the Macintosh, just shortened

[JNB]

For extra credit, why "Apple"? (Answer hidden below)

Jobs had recently worked at an organic apple orchard, and liked the name because "he thought of the apple as the perfect fruit--it has a high nutritional content, it comes in a nice package, it doesn't damage easily--and he wanted Apple to be the perfect company. Besides, they couldn't come up with a better name."

Rose, Frank. West Of Eden: The End Of Innocence At Apple Computer. New York, Penguin Books, 1989: 33.

[tMac85]

ooooooo nice hidden message. got my dose of detective for the day! haha


and that logo.... good god what if that was on all their boxes, came as a standard desktop background, and you could buy big posters of it from apple.

[ajvizzgamer101]

I think the second on since the laptops are called Macbook and they don't HAVE a mouse.

[mkrishnan]

our country ( USA at least) is already to lazy as it is. adding 2 more syllables will just take up to much of our time.

There are many deeply ironic things about this post. Can you spot them all? :)

And think about it this way. Are you not glad that his favorite apple was not the incomparable Granny Smith? ;)

[Theophany]

I thought mac was the Macintosh, just shortened

It is, I just think Macintosh sounds better than Mac, personally.

[DoFoT9]

It is, I just think Macintosh sounds better than Mac, personally.

me too! mac is to universal, it means to many things.. macintosh is more "proper" i guess.

if apple brought back an apple Macintosh....wow...amazing.

[Theophany]

me too! mac is to universal, it means to many things.. macintosh is more "proper" i guess.

if apple brought back an apple Macintosh....wow...amazing.

Haha, I feel the same. iMac was first used, if I remember correctly, because the original iMac was heavily focused on the importance of being able to connect to the Internet (hence the 'i'). That 'i' has now come to be a prefix synonymous with Apple products, which is not necessarily a bad thing from a marketing perspective, but I would argue the importance of the Internet stressed with the original iMacs is now redundant seeing as the Internet is such a central component of what consumers expect to be able to do with their computers.

Macintosh just inspires those old thoughts of revolutionary products that have an irrefutable quality about them, just as the original Macintosh did in 1984. It would be nice if the next iMac revision this year was branded as a 'Macintosh' in commemoration of it's 25th anniversary. :)

[Denholm]

Apparently it's because Jef Raskin's favourite apple was the McIntosh.

Makes sense. I'm glad he wasn't fond of the Granny Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny_Smith), that would not have worked out as well. :D

[iParis]

Basically, Macintosh shortened (as previously stated).

@ All those people saying it should be Macintosh...
Does this sound right, MacintoshBook?
How about iMacintosh?
Maybe MacintoshBook Pro?
See what I mean, it was done so Apple's computers wouldn't sound retarded.

[DoFoT9]

Haha, I feel the same. iMac was first used, if I remember correctly, because the original iMac was heavily focused on the importance of being able to connect to the Internet (hence the 'i'). That 'i' has now come to be a prefix synonymous with Apple products, which is not necessarily a bad thing from a marketing perspective, but I would argue the importance of the Internet stressed with the original iMacs is now redundant seeing as the Internet is such a central component of what consumers expect to be able to do with their computers.

yup thats pretty much spot on!! i watched the youtube video of the original iMac lastnight, and there were 4 words that they used... i can only remember 1 lol.. "inspire", im pretty sure internet was in there though. but Steve basically said

"our users wanted a product that could connect to the internet as easily as possible" or something like that... so yea nice.

Macintosh just inspires those old thoughts of revolutionary products that have an irrefutable quality about them, just as the original Macintosh did in 1984. It would be nice if the next iMac revision this year was branded as a 'Macintosh' in commemoration of it's 25th anniversary. :)

i agree, what a great idea! i just hope that they dont go back to the horrible grey colour (beige??) that it used to be hahahha.

[Slantsixx]

For extra credit, why "Apple"? (Answer hidden below)


Sounds nice, but I think it's because he wanted his company to come before Atari.

[Topher15]

iMacintosh FTW :D


I was under the impression that there was no difference between 'Macintosh' and 'Mac', the name was just shortened. So Macs are Macintoshes.

[SnowLeopard2008]

Macintosh is longer than Mac. When I say Mac, my PC friends just scatter. After nearly 2 years of crap, they still won't admit that their computers are buggy as heck with Vista. I waited nearly 2 minutes for IE 7 to load up Yahoo! before it crashed on me.

[liptonlover]

The question is, what do people refer to their computers as in casual conversation? I always say 'mac', whether it's an emac or imac. Except for the old ones, those I refer to as 'macintosh'.

[Melrose]

I think Macintosh sounds better than Mac or iMac. Bring back the Apple Macintosh!! :p

I only say "Mac" sparingly. "Macintosh" sounds better I agree widja.. I generally only say Mac when referring to my computer in the possessive. It doesn't make any sense, but I refer to to the system impersonally as a "Macintosh." If it's a computer in particular being singled out, it becomes a "Mac."

[Queso]

For extra credit, why "Apple"?
Nice theory, but we all know really it's because Steve Jobs is Teh Satan™ and wants our souls :D

[sushi]

Just thinking about the Granny Smith apple name.

What kind of computer do you have?

Oh, I have the top of the line Granny Smith. Or I have a Granny Smith Pro laptop.

[gkarris]

What does Mac mean?

$599 for a $399 small computer
$999 for a $699 laptop,

and

$2,799 for a $1,499 tower...

:eek:

:D

(runs and hides....)