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36 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Unveiled the First Macintosh
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When a program is compiled, it is translated into machine language, which consists of the instructions the processor can understand. If a program is compiled for the x86 ISA, an x86 processor will be able to execute the program. However, an ARM processor will have no idea what the program's instructions mean, because they aren't defined in the ARM ISA.
There many ways to emulate variations of software on ARM, but it’s proven to be inefficient. Btw, not all developers are interested or have the time to emulate their extensive software (such as bioinformatics tools) for ARM. Why would they waste time when we have an already working x86 architecture?
"Facebook" was sarcasm, just use your ARM iPad for the, he....
Sorry, I can't really celebrate. Apple is a very different company now than it was when the original Macintosh came out (my Mom still has hers 
). Back then Apple had a strong reputation for delivering a quality, very user-friendly PC that was leaps and bounds ahead of anything at the time. The belief (as I remember it) was that Apple was about form and function. Apple made products were really easy to use and offered an experience that catered to the user. Apple garnered a reputation that kept these users around for a long time by providing an experience that was not only looked good but was useful.
That's not really the case anymore. Apple doesn't implement a lot of (again, my opinion) common-sense improvements to its products. Removable batteries are one. Why should it be so expensive to get a new battery? Why can't I just buy a new one and pop it in?. Then there's the multiple charging cables (groan). Why not one common plug for charging and data, Apple (sorry, I'm siding with the EU here)? And neglecting core products...and I don't care what Apple says. The MBP is still not a pro-level PC anymore - it's close, but not there. And while USB Type-C is fast, it is a horribly designed hardware connection. Etc...
And of course, there are a lot of little annoyances that crop up and tend to pile up. But on the whole, Apple celebrating the original Macintosh now just makes me even more aware of the differences between the company then and now. It doesn't embody the spirit of the original company, or even Apple after Jobs cames back in 1996. It has the reputation of being expensive, restrictive, and out of touch with its original mission. And no, I'm not just griping here. I've been with Apple almost since day one. I've used Apple products since they were first available. So I don't see myself as a "hater" or troll, or whatever (I know those comments are coming - Forbes, you out there?).
Just my 2 cents.
). Back then Apple had a strong reputation for delivering a quality, very user-friendly PC that was leaps and bounds ahead of anything at the time. The belief (as I remember it) was that Apple was about form and function. Apple made products were really easy to use and offered an experience that catered to the user. Apple garnered a reputation that kept these users around for a long time by providing an experience that was not only looked good but was useful.That's not really the case anymore. Apple doesn't implement a lot of (again, my opinion) common-sense improvements to its products. Removable batteries are one. Why should it be so expensive to get a new battery? Why can't I just buy a new one and pop it in?. Then there's the multiple charging cables (groan). Why not one common plug for charging and data, Apple (sorry, I'm siding with the EU here)? And neglecting core products...and I don't care what Apple says. The MBP is still not a pro-level PC anymore - it's close, but not there. And while USB Type-C is fast, it is a horribly designed hardware connection. Etc...
And of course, there are a lot of little annoyances that crop up and tend to pile up. But on the whole, Apple celebrating the original Macintosh now just makes me even more aware of the differences between the company then and now. It doesn't embody the spirit of the original company, or even Apple after Jobs cames back in 1996. It has the reputation of being expensive, restrictive, and out of touch with its original mission. And no, I'm not just griping here. I've been with Apple almost since day one. I've used Apple products since they were first available. So I don't see myself as a "hater" or troll, or whatever (I know those comments are coming - Forbes, you out there?).
Just my 2 cents.
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Still have my original Mac SE with (2) built in floppy drives. It sits on top of a Jasmine 20MB hard drive.
On my shelf, running After Dark aquarium!
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Good post, but a very different time, Robert. What you said is true... quality, user-friendly, etc. There was nothing like it at the time. Progress has certainly changed the landscape!
On my shelf, running After Dark aquarium!
[automerge]1579880904[/automerge]
Sorry, I can't really celebrate. Apple is a very different company now than it was when the original Macintosh came out (my Mom still has hers
That's not really the case anymore. Apple doesn't implement a lot of (again, my opinion) common-sense improvements to its products. Removable batteries are one. Why should it be so expensive to get a new battery? Why can't I just buy a new one and pop it in?. Then there's the multiple charging cables (groan). Why not one common plug for charging and data, Apple (sorry, I'm siding with the EU here)? And neglecting core products...and I don't care what Apple says. The MBP is still not a pro-level PC anymore - it's close, but not there. And while USB Type-C is fast, it is a horribly designed hardware connection. Etc...
And of course, there are a lot of little annoyances that crop up and tend to pile up. But on the whole, Apple celebrating the original Macintosh now just makes me even more aware of the differences between the company then and now. It doesn't embody the spirit of the original company, or even Apple after Jobs cames back in 1996. It has the reputation of being expensive, restrictive, and out of touch with its original mission. And no, I'm not just griping here. I've been with Apple since day one. I've used Apple products since they were first available. So I don't see myself as a "hater" or troll, or whatever (I know those comments are coming - Forbes, you out there?).
Just my 2 cents.
Good post, but a very different time, Robert. What you said is true... quality, user-friendly, etc. There was nothing like it at the time. Progress has certainly changed the landscape!
I remember at the time - Apple wanted to sell 100,000 in 100 days (a few hours worth of sales today) and they sold 70,000. I was one of those who bought one and loved it. I remember one of the cost items that got me was the floppy disks cost $50 for a pack of 5 - but you had no choice. Had to travel about 100 miles to find a store since at the time Apple didn't allow mail orders. I started with an Apple II (not e or + but a base II).
What a simpler world then.
What a simpler world then.
I also had a 10 MB hard drive for mine - a Supermac. I thought I was living large with that!
This is why it's mindbogglingly stupid that boxoffice success historically is measured measured in dollars. I get why they do it because the studios and theaters can continue to release pressers stating that new box office records being broken all the time.
Facebook? Who the heck said anything about Facebook? ARM is scalable, and I fully expect that when ARM finally comes to macOS - and it will, eventually - there won’t be any worries about performance. Apple has the best CPUs for phones, because that’s been their target thus far. Why do you expect they’d just take those same exact chips and put them in Macs? Their A-series chips thus far have been engineered to work within the extremely limited thermal and power restraints of an iPhone chassis. A Mac chassis is a vastly different environment, with much more power and with active cooling available, and I expect Apple will take advantage of that. I look forward to an ARM Mac. And I don’t use Facebook.
The scientists I know use the Mac because it’s the best Unix workstation that also runs commercial software, not because it has an x86 (they don’t care what the CPU is, they care about the performance it delivers) - that’s a big part of Unix, that it’s a completely cross-platform OS that can run extremely well on any architecture.
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You are comparing apples to oranges. Does original Mac has replaceable battery, it has no battery. Apple desktop computers are rock solid, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, Mac mini – all great machines, way ahead of PC.
Happy Birthday Mac!
I did not own my first Mac until 1996, but I always looked at these machines in awe at university. I miss these. The size is just right.
I will have an action figure replica though.
I did not own my first Mac until 1996, but I always looked at these machines in awe at university. I miss these. The size is just right.
I will have an action figure replica though.
So much has changed, both good and bad, but one thing cannot be denied Jobs did save Apple as they were on the brink
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Still have my 'first day Mac' down stairs, still stick the 'Ancient Art of War' disc to watch the attract mode play.
Walked into the Computerland store in Lawton Oklahoma and there it was with the owner standing next to it. I asked how many he had he held up 2 fingers. I replied "so one to sell and one for show" he just smiled a big grin.
Long story short I left with the Macintosh, an Imagewriter printer the size of a Volkswagen, MacPaint, MacWrite and Multiplan for a cool $3000 or there abouts.
Walked into the Computerland store in Lawton Oklahoma and there it was with the owner standing next to it. I asked how many he had he held up 2 fingers. I replied "so one to sell and one for show" he just smiled a big grin.
Long story short I left with the Macintosh, an Imagewriter printer the size of a Volkswagen, MacPaint, MacWrite and Multiplan for a cool $3000 or there abouts.
Shameless plug, but I wrote a few months ago about my initial experience with the “Skinny Mac” in July, 1984, and the resulting life-changing effects thereof.
Our first Mac my mom used for her home publishing business. We got a Macintosh+ which we upgraded the memory on quite quickly. We also go a 20 Meg HD that went under the Mac, and also got the Apple Laserwriter to go with it. I was a Junior in HS and my grades instantly went up because my teachers could actually read my work... So 2,500 for the computer, 2,500 for the Hard Drive, and 2,500 for the printer. As Dad was a teacher I think we ate a lot of noodles that year... My parents finally retired the LaserWriter when we could no longer connect it to anything, 350,000 prints on it.
...and rightly so because it is a total fallacy to use the cost of a 1980s personal computer + general inflation to justify the cost of a Mac in 2020. Yes, folks, an IBM PC cost several thousand dollars in 1984, too - cut to 2020 and the cheapest and cheerfullest $500 Saturday Special from Dell is an order of magnitude more powerful. You can't meaningfully apply inflation to a product category that you know darn well has seen 40 years of massive deflation.
Best you can say: all IT and consumer electronics is relatively more affordable now than it was in the 1980s.
Wow, 70,000 units sold in a short amount of time at the equivalent of $6k!
I wonder what their Mac Pro sales targets look like. I was thinking more like 10,000 max.
I wonder what their Mac Pro sales targets look like. I was thinking more like 10,000 max.
World's largest ARM supercomputer is headed to a nuclear security lab
Most supercomputers are focused on pure processing speed. Take the DOE's new Summit system, which is now the world's most powerful supercomputer, with 9,000 22-core IBM Power9 processors and over 27,000 NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPUs. But processing performance isn't everything. Last year, Hewlett...
Player three has entered Cray's supercomputing game: First AMD Epyc, now Fujitsu's Arm chips
A64FX: Big in Japan, big in the US, UK at this rate
Tech Monitor - Navigating the horizon of business technology.
Data-driven insight and authoritative analysis for business, digital, and policy leaders in a world disrupted and inspired by technology
www.cbronline.com
Unix has been running on ARM for the last 30 years, BTW:
Acorn R260 - Computer - Computing History
The R260 is functionally identical to the A540.The R260 is functionally identical to the A540. The R260 was fitted with 8 Mb of RAM and a 100 Mb SCSI hard disc drive as standard, while the R225 cam...
www.computinghistory.org.uk
...and all the major Linux distros (...and the big-name open source apps) support it:
(2017) https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-h...arm-arrives-after-seven-years-of-development/
Ubuntu for ARM | Download | Ubuntu
Download Ubuntu Server for ARM with support for the very latest ARM-based server systems powered by certified 64-bit processors.
ubuntu.com
The only real argument against ARM Macs is from people running Windows on their Macs, or Linux/Unix users who need binary compatibility (...in a community built around the concept of source-code level compatibility).
In other news, Apple couldn't possibly (switch from 6502 to 68k)/(switch from 68k toPPC)/(switch from PPC to x86)/(Drop Rosetta)/(Drop 32-bit support) because everybody would have to re-compile their apps (seriously, if after all those changes, developers are still writing x86-dependent code, they're holding it wrong).
...then we could have nice things like a Mac Mini with decent integrated graphics and twice as many cores ,or lower-powered MacBook Airs, iOS apps could run natively in a Mac sandbox and Apple's release schedule wouldn't be mucked up by Intel shortages and their habit of announcing their next-gen architecture before they've finished releasing the models Apple needs from the previous gen...
No it's not.
It's about comparing a very expensive computer relative to average tech wages and cost of living back in 1990 with a very expensive computer relative to average tech wages and cost of living in 2020.
It was painful to forking over the $ to purchase my Mac Iici back then, as it will be when I purchase a Mac Pro today.
I have no problem with that being meaningless to you.
Yep. I remember thinking 10 MB! I will never fill that. After all that is over 9 floppies, well the brand new pseudo-floppy hard plastic 1.44 MB 3 1/2 disks that the mac used. Those were $2-5 each back then.
What do you mean I can't open the Macintosh and put expansion cards in it? Why does everything have to be connected externally? It's gonna be dongle hell. No colour option? At all? Non-upgradable RAM? Who thought that was a good idea? Why don't they offer one without a built-in screen? I wish I could use all my existing 5-1/4" floppies with it! The mouse is such a gimmick, I can get things done much quicker with the keyboard.
Whoever designed this should be fired.
[Narrator: He was.]