20 Years Ago Today, Apple Unveiled the eMac

[kalsta]

I happy that this machine is history, together with all the old CRT iMacs. This contraption was loud, not particularly fast, and had a mediocre monitor.

I agree. The eMac was a beached whale of a machine—heavy, unsightly, unimaginative and outdated from the day it launched. It really had only one thing going for it—price.

I’m surprised to see a nostalgic write-up about it on MR actually, and just as surprised to discover that so many readers remember it fondly!

 

[ericwn]

I agree. The eMac was a beached whale of a machine—heavy, unsightly, unimaginative and outdated from the day it launched. It really had only one thing going for it—price.

I’m surprised to see a nostalgic write-up about it on MR actually, and just as surprised to discover that so many readers remember it fondly!

The iMac G4 on the other hand, was a thing of beauty in my opinion.

 

[macos9rules]

I was a big fan of the G3 iMac (and still is), but I never liked the look of the eMac. But design aside, it was a great computer with plenty of power at an affordable price.

 

[GhostRaider]

Same the first time I saw this Mac was in middle school. Had to create flash animations with Macromedia Flash MX. Loved this Mac. The aesthetics of it was one of its kind.

 

[jakey rolling]

The iMac G4 on the other hand, was a thing of beauty in my opinion.

It is. I still have one sitting on a desk behind me doing nothing but running a fish screen saver for some decoration and background noise, and occasionally used to play a few old Classic Mac OS games (Escape Velocity and Mortal Pongbat)

The G4 iMac was a brilliant design and is absolutely beautiful.

 

[ArrayDecay]

How did I get so old?

 

[Joe Dohn]

Apple needs to be bolder, as they were in the past. Enough with the gray / white colors and squares. Give us brighter, creative designs. Sell skins, I don't know. I'm tired of those square, much-reused designs.

 

[icerabbit]

If you're still lucky enough to have a 1.25 GHz or 1.42 GHz model, you can run a modern OS that isn't Linux! Check out MorphOS, the single fastest OS for your PowerPC Mac.

MorphOS - Hardware

morphos-team.net

Wow ...

This gives me the equivalent of a 25 year flash back in time, where there is such a wonderful world online ... things on the internet are positive and put you at awe, you find great information, new tools, new utilities, download this, download that, learn a new trick ...

Today I suddenly stumble on a compatible OS I never knew existed.

Long story short, I have a few older Macs around and always wanted to have my own miniature time capsule / computer museum, but in recent years found myself at odds with everything on the windows side and Mac side, because everything is so internet centric, nothing supports the right internet https or App Store security protocols any more, web pages now require GBs of RAM ... and honestly firing up a G3 G4 intel just became a headache with obsoleted browsers, authentication issues on the Apple App Store, etc. One learns of the browsers that are old Firefox or such forks, but even those are near extinction ... understandably, their creators are running out of steam while fighting a never ending tide of obsolescence.

So, thank you, MysticCow, for your comment and mention of morphos.
I may keep one of my G4 Cubes around a bit longer, if I can get that running ... G4 450? G4 500? 1.5 GB RAM?

 

[ScholarsInk]

I learned Photoshop, InDesign, and various other programs/platforms on these at my school. Effectively daily drove it, which led to me being a primarily Mac user from then on out.

 

[MacAddict1978]

It weighing a ton was by design.

I recall when the G3 iMac was out reading school administrators and IT comments of how the convenient handle and size of the G3 iMac made it easy to steal from school computer labs. So Apple turned it into a pig.
As well there were concerns with how the G3 iMac was vented at the top of the machine which made pouring a glass of water on to the electronics easy. Apple moved the venting to the back of the machine. There were also complaints of kids poking out the speaker drivers. I believe the initial eMac had improved speaker grills.
The eMac was the design response to these concerns.

The eMac really was just a minor update to the iMac without the color and the things you mentioned. It really was a lazy design in my opinion, but it also let Apple recycle an old model as a new model for education.

I miss the lamp iMac. Best design ever, and was really sad when it changed into what is still essentially the iMac today.

 

[ResPublica]

I agree. The eMac was a beached whale of a machine—heavy, unsightly, unimaginative and outdated from the day it launched. It really had only one thing going for it—price.

I’m surprised to see a nostalgic write-up about it on MR actually, and just as surprised to discover that so many readers remember it fondly!

I think the screen was actually quite a nice thing to behold (with a relatively high 1280x960 resolution). The viewing angles were perfect, like with all CRT's. Since you got a desktop hard drive instead of the iBooks' or Mac mini's laptop hard drive, the machine did not feel slow. The price allowed many educational institutions to buy and use these machines. On the other hand, the machine looked nice but lacked the elegance of the iMac G3, and the weight and power consumption were terrible.

 

[hajime]

I prefer Lisa.

 

[Bodhitree]

This was a great computer and great deal in its time. I wish Apple took the K-12 education space as seriously now as it did then. Chromebooks are the computes of choice in that space, and its one that Apple easily could have owned.

You know, I’m not so sure they could have. Chromebooks have a few things going for them besides the rock bottom price, such as a Cloud-first OS, software that is built for collaboration and the ability to run a wide selection of android apps. As a package it would have been hard for Apple to match, and because of the low price its easy to buy and try.

 

[MysticCow]

So, thank you, MysticCow, for your comment and mention of morphos.
I may keep one of my G4 Cubes around a bit longer, if I can get that running ... G4 450? G4 500? 1.5 GB RAM?

Make sure it has a Radeon card. NVidia is 10,000% unsupported in MorphOS. But if your system is fully supported, Morph just mauls everything else, OS X included, on PowerPC.

If your need is just for a workstation, check out MacOS 9 lives for the universal OS 9 installer: http://www.macos9lives.com/ OS 9 is even still a decent choice for workstation purposes as long as you don’t use docx files.

 

[ncbill]

Loved the eMac I picked up for ~$500...2nd generation so it avoided the capacitor issues that the 3rd generation had.

A nice upgrade to the smaller-screen CRT iMac.

 

[Digital Skunk]

That was a gem of a machine. Loved the design and concept and it was just plain fun to use.

 

[alexprice]

Seeing this has brought back some memories. I used to work for an Apple Authorised Service Provider in the UK when these were around. I remember turning up to work many times and a massive lorry would be delivering these in batches of perhaps 50 at a time to our head office to be sold to customers. We'd all help unload them and bring them in. They were really heavy, the boxes were huge and if not carried correctly then you'd end up with back ache and worn-out by 9:30am. The front of the box where the face of the screen was located was the heaviest part, you had to make sure the side of the box where the face of the screen was located, was closest to you when carrying to make it easier. I also remember working on them, they had a common problem which was a loss of screen image and/or distortions, caused by something called an IVDS cable which would fail within a few months. It was only about a 4" cable with around 10 pins but was really tricky to replace due to it's location. After doing enough of them it became easier to do. You just needed to remove the stand (if it had one), then the rear housing which was just 5 screws, then you could access the cable to replace. Was quite a simple fix really but only if you could master the technique to replace the cable. They were really cheap, I think around £500 each. The screen was really good even though it was an old fashioned CRT, it was nice and flat with anti-glare coating. I'm seem to recall it being a Sony Trinitron CRT as it had the very faint two horizontal black lines.. The speakers were good and it ran pretty much silently, thanks to a single, efficient and silent fan at the back. Good connectivity, with USB2 in the later models, Ethernet (though only 10/100), Built-in modem, Audio in and out, a video output via an optional mini-vga adaptor, and even as firewire port. Oh and optional Bluetooth and Airport I think too. Was cheap but pretty decent, not the nicest looking design and not that high spec at the time, but was good. A noble underdog.

 

[cajun67]

Was that the last education Mac? Didn't Apple abandon the K-12 market after that one?

 

[Jedimindtrick]

My very first Mac. My Mom and Dad got it for as a high school graduation gift, mainly because my Dad wanted me to have GarageBand and iMovie! I loved that machine, added more RAM after college and squeezed every last ounce of life from it.

 

[davester]

I remember when they had to redesign the speaker grilles to make them smaller as students were poking holes in the speakers 🤣

 

[stillcrazyman]

I recall driving many miles to the Apple Store to pick one up. Couldn’t afford much back then, so it was a good enough machine.

Also, as a service tech back then, I recall having to fix these. Discharge that CRT before you get too involved.
50 pounds was a lot to shift around, even worse with a rounded design.

 

[Zaren]

I remember removing 60 of those things from computer labs... what a workout that was... they are heavier than they look.

A company I worked for got to upgrade all the computers in a school district with these. Hundreds of eMacs arrived on delivery trucks. Every one was pulled off the truck, inspected and inventoried, put back on a truck, dropped at a storage facility, picked backed up, brought to our location to image, taken back to storage, then trucked to the schools...

Man, my arms looked amazing after that job was done. Those suckers were HEAVY, and with nothing to grab but smooth sides, I developed great grip strength as well.

 

[rick3000]

My first Mac was a 1Ghz eMac in 2004 with a SuperDrive and 768MB of RAM. I learned how to edit in Final Cut Pro on it. It also started my interest in MacRumors, because a few weeks after I got it they released the 1.25Ghz or 1.42Ghz model (can't remember), and I never wanted to be poorly informed again when making a major purchase .

The eMac was a great computer, I actually still have mine, although I do wish I had spent the extra $300 for the sunflower iMac, which I think is one of the best looking computers ever designed.

 

[0423MAC]

Ah the eMac. A very interesting and odd line in Apple history.

Heavy, hard to move around, hard to ship safely and slow. I still had one of these until very recently, but it really just takes up space at this point and ended up getting rid of it.

I loved it.

 

[ddhhddhh2]

Looking at it, it almost makes me think it was yesterday, 20 years have passed.