Apple's Macintosh Turns 25 Years Old Today

[MacRumors]

Twenty-five years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh at an event in the Flint Center for the Performing Arts to an audience of about 3000 people (YouTube video).

"There wasn't a person in the room who didn't think this was history happening," recalled Richard Doherty, analyst with the Envisioneering Group, who was there.

Computerworld recaps some of the history surrounding the original Mac project which was originally considered just a "research project":

After the failure of the Apple III, the Apple board had reservations about allowing Jobs to manage another high-profile project. When Jobs asked to take over the Mac project, the board allowed him to do so, feeling that the relatively unknown project wasn't critical to Apple's wellbeing.
....
The result was a resolution by Jobs and his Mac team not only to make a "baby Lisa" but also to turn the Mac into a product that could advance the computing industry as much as or more than the Apple II had done -- or, as Jobs has been quoted as saying, to "put a dent in the universe."

The introduction of the Macintosh was also marked by the broadcast of Apple's famous 1984 commercial (YouTube Video) during that year's Super Bowl.

Readers interested in more of the history of the original Mac should visit Folklore.org which has collected anecdotes about the original Macintosh project and the people who created it. Meanwhile, Mac512.com has posted video from a 1984 VHS tape produced by Apple to showcase the Macintosh as well as the new Mouse/Desktop interface.

Article Link: Apple's Macintosh Turns 25 Years Old Today

[macduke]

Long live the Mac! Long live the Steve!

I used my first mac in Kindergarten. We used Apple II's to play Oregon Trail. I remember how fun it was to load the 5 1/4" floppy disks and push the power button on the back of the computer.

I was briefly able to use a G3's and eMac's in Middle School. Then in high school I used G4's to edit video in FCP for broadcast on Comcast 15 in KC.

When I first started college we had G5's, then I was out of college a few years. Since I've been back we've gone from dual core Mac Pros to double 2.8GHz quad core Xeon babies. I was also finally able to afford a mac of my own, my 2.4ghz MBP friend that I bought last March.

I've grown up Mac!! Thank you Steve and Apple. Your computer systems sparked my imagination and have shaped my career path, positively influencing my life and the lives of my loved ones. I couldn't be happier.

Best wishes on this incredible anniversary.

[Macminiintel]

Lol maybe its just coincidence, but I emailed them saying it should be posted on the homepage and someone must of listened lol

forever, been using macs for almost 11 years now first mac I ever used was a Performa 5200 in 96/97, then my parents got an iMac G3 in 1998. I wonder what the next 25 years will bring

[arn]

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

[brop52]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

When I was about 8 I would sneak down stairs in the middle of the night to read my IIsi and OS 7 manuals.

[xUKHCx]

Originally Posted by arn

figured I'd share.

arn

Newbie here, Windows 98 SE 500MHz -> iMac G5 bought on release day -> iMac Core 2 Duo and then about a year or so later added a Macbook 2.2 C2D.

So I joined Mac at around 10.3.5 seems so long ago but in terms of the companies history it is a small fleck in their timescale.

[WildCowboy]

My family didn't have a computer when I was growing up, but I certainly used various flavors of Apple //s in elementary and middle school, and spent a good bit of time on my friend's Performa. Didn't get my first computer until I was heading off to college, and I bought a PC because, well, it was the summer of '96 and Steve hadn't yet arrived back on the scene to pull Apple back from the brink.

My first Mac was a May 2001 iBook 500 MHz Dual USB, and I'm now running a January 2005 15" PowerBook, which is starting to get a bit long in the tooth.

[Marvy]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

Similar here, though used the Apple II's in school. My very first Mac of my own was a IIsi. Years later upgraded to a Power Performa 6400, and then to my first mobile Mac, the iBook G3 (2x USB). That was my last PPC before making the switch to the iMac Core Duo, which I have to this very day (along with a used MacBook I bought a few months ago). It's been a long time..

[richthomas]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

i only ever used PCs and Windows growing up (post internets era) and got a MacBook Pro 2 years ago .

[nick9191]

Were they always that beige or is that one nicotine stained.

[nick9191]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

What Macs do you like the most and which do you dislike.

[dicklacara]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

Mmmm... brings back memories!

Part of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PheGc...t9_markup.html

was filmed at our Computer Plus, Sunnyvale store in November 1983.

Apple's film team expropriated the store for about 6 hours to film various shots-- mostly of people buying their first Mac. Scrub in to 3:06-3:14 to see an example.

The front windows were papered over, the doors were locked-- it was a business day...

But, it was worth it! At the end, Bill Atkinson gave a demo of MacPaint & I got 15 minutes of play time on the Mac.

Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh!

Later, My partner, Mark Wozniak, and I attended the official intro at Flint-- but by that time we were old-timers with 15 minutes of Mac experience!

Dick Applebaum

[Elijahg]

Happy Birthday Macintosh!
You've made it this far, nothing can stop you now!

[gertruded]

My Apple ][ plus still works. My ][ gs is still in operation and used to run the old programs at times, still have some old basic programs running.

[andreab35]

Happy Birthday Mac!
You're getting old!

[X38]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

Started out myself on an Apple II+ (48K Ram, 143K single floppy, DOS 3.3) that my folks got when I was a high school freshman. Still have it, but haven't turned it on in years. (Learned to program from The Applesoft Tutorial manual; still the friendliest bit of technical documentation ever written.) Used to ride my bike to the local computer stores every chance I got when the LISA came out; it was so new it took me awhile to figure out it really was easier to use but it was out of reach due to being so expensive. It was a much more fundamental advance over the Xerox Star than legions of MS fans want to give credit for these days. And then the Mac came out when I was working part time at the local store... I wanted one so bad, but college had to come first. One thing I wish the Mac still had was the built in interactive tutorial guide for new users that assumed you knew nothing to start with.

I was installing computer next works at my church when Appletalk was introduced - it was fascinating to plug those Macs together with so little effort and show folks they could just move files to each other's computers without having to walk down the hall with floppy disk like their PC using counterparts. ;-) Switcher came out about that time too and then got officially incorporated into the Mac system and you could actually have more than one application open at a time (not just utilities) and switch between them, later to become MultiFinder. Those were the days of System and Finder being separate from each other and on separate upgrades, finally consolidated with System 6.

Back in college, it was the days before the world wide web and the only internet connectivity was in the campus computer labs. There were no internet connection in the dorms and almost nobody had a computer in their room. We did have one community room in the dorm that had several computers for shared use without having to go across campus. Since they were all Macs, that room was forever known as "the Mac room", NOT "the computer room", even long after we stopped using it for that.

In grad school I got to admin the department Mac network and persuaded the faculty to let us upgrade to System 7, which was a huge revolution with the ability to actually see your files on one Mac while sitting at another one!


Sorry for the rambling, just couldn't resist reminiscing some of my 'Apple' moments after reading this thread.

[sporadicMotion]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

2 words... Carmen Sandiego

Happy Birthday old friend

[flottenheimer]

Originally Posted by sporadicMotion

2 words... Carmen Sandiego...

I played that on my Amiga way back. Gotta love those retro-computing memories.

Happy birthday Mac!

[chaosconan]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

Wow, you have such a beautiful family. You brought tears to my eyes.

[blackcrayon]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

I figured there was a good reason that you go through the 8bit and 8/16 bit 65XX chips on here before you get to the 68000

[BRLawyer]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

Hail to the BEST! In my case, I had the following:

- Apple //e clone (TK3000//e from Brazil), 128Kb RAM, green phosphor monitor, one floppy drive (5 1/4");
- Apple IIGS (probably the most well-built and stunning personal computer ever, especially with its Ensoniq chip), Apple RGB Color monitor, AE Conserve module, and a "gigantic" Vulcan HD of 40Mb ;
- Mac Quadra 605 (pizza box that introduced me to Macs in 1994/1995), 12Mb RAM, 160Mb HD;
- iBook G3 (still chugging along with me);
- iMac G5;
- my current iMac Intel 24" 2.8 (the BEST desktop on Earth, hands down).

In fact, Arn, I still have the original A+ edition that contains an open letter from John Sculley back in the early 90s, where he states Apple's willingness to continue supporting the Apple // line for years to come...nevertheless, the Apple // line would be discontinued in a few months...just to continue with the Apple //e compatibility card in the Mac LC...

All these years NEVER having a stupid PC at home (only at work, of course)...all these years experiencing the best from personal computers, instead of suffering with DOS or Winblows...more than 10 people converted to Macs (and NEVER coming back to an inferior world).

GO APPLE! GO SJ! MS IS DEAD. DELL IS DEAD.

[airjuggernaut]

Happy Birthday Mac!

[X38]

Originally Posted by BRLawyer

Hail to the BEST! In my case, I had the following:

- Apple //e clone (TK3000//e from Brazil), 128Kb RAM, green phosphor monitor, one floppy drive (5 1/4");
[...]

That's an odd one, not sure I remember that.
Since us old farts can't seem to help recollecting our Apple ][ days, anyone else remember to old Bell & Howell "black Apples"? We actually had a few in my junior high computer lab.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/...ell/index.html

[morespce54]

Originally Posted by arn

I was an Apple II guy growing up. Apple //c, Apple //gs. Apple discontinued the Apple II line (to my dismay at the time), so I got a Mac IIsi for college. Later upgraded to a PowerMac 7500. PowerMac G3, I think next. PowerMac G4 Dual 800. Now on a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Dual Xeon.

figured I'd share.

arn

OMG, I did some college works on my Mac IIsi.
Before that, I was "playing" with my father Apple //c (we had like 3 or 4 "games"...) hehehe...
There only so much you can do in black and green...

[branjosef]

I use to play Oregon trail on one in elementary school and the wierd wheel of fortune rip-off game that was called phrase craze (I think)