Honestly, if someone would have asked me how long ago I used the first Mac, I would have said "20 yrs or so". Dang 36 years? Thanks MacRumors for making me feel a lot older than I am....
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36 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Unveiled the First Macintosh
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I do miss him.
How old would he be? Late 60's? Ahh, 64. 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64'. If only he had lived that long.
I almost met him. He was leaving Kona Village as I was driving in. Our cars, (my car, and his entourage) probably passed on the access road. He died shortly after. So sad... But Kona Village was an amazing awesome place to be able to stay at. (It was destroyed by a tsunami, and plans to rebuild never apparently happened)
Ironically, I was actually in Cupertino about a week after his passing. The monument to his passing was already massive, covering much of the grass in front of One Infinite Loop. People dropped off Macs, Mac Books, iMacs, mice, manuals, pictures, all kinds of stuff. Stuffed Apple hardware. I swore there were some Apple ]['s and other equipment left. Quite a moving sight. It was hard not to get a little misty eyed. One, being 'THERE!', and two, seeing the outpouring of reverence and respect. Such a loss...
How old would he be? Late 60's? Ahh, 64. 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64'. If only he had lived that long.
I almost met him. He was leaving Kona Village as I was driving in. Our cars, (my car, and his entourage) probably passed on the access road. He died shortly after. So sad... But Kona Village was an amazing awesome place to be able to stay at. (It was destroyed by a tsunami, and plans to rebuild never apparently happened)
Ironically, I was actually in Cupertino about a week after his passing. The monument to his passing was already massive, covering much of the grass in front of One Infinite Loop. People dropped off Macs, Mac Books, iMacs, mice, manuals, pictures, all kinds of stuff. Stuffed Apple hardware. I swore there were some Apple ]['s and other equipment left. Quite a moving sight. It was hard not to get a little misty eyed. One, being 'THERE!', and two, seeing the outpouring of reverence and respect. Such a loss...
Where are the rumors, "Mac Rumors"? MacBook Pros are not the only Mac, why do you keep lavishing attention on that? Why don't you focus more on the iMac and why it has not been significantly update in the last 10 years? Where are the rumors for that update? Pound the dirt, MacRumors, because I'm not seeing any coverage of rumors. Just regurgitation of press releases.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
What an amazing moment in history that was.
The fact that Apple went on to do it again (with the iPhone) is incredible.
Steve Jobs and his team at Apple managed to define, and then completely redefine computing as we know it (let alone the music industry with the iPod).
His vision for computing is and will continue to be carried out by both Apple, Microsoft, and even Google, until a similar genius finally comes along and cracks holographics or the Matrix.
I hope I'm here to see it!
The fact that Apple went on to do it again (with the iPhone) is incredible.
Steve Jobs and his team at Apple managed to define, and then completely redefine computing as we know it (let alone the music industry with the iPod).
His vision for computing is and will continue to be carried out by both Apple, Microsoft, and even Google, until a similar genius finally comes along and cracks holographics or the Matrix.
I hope I'm here to see it!
When has Apple NOT had the reputation of being expensive and restrictive?
Would that be the same Steve that said this?
I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth.
I’m of the notion that if Steve was still alive, he would have slammed the brakes on the Mac awhile back (during that long dry spell), and put everything into it’s replacement. Just like he dumped the FCP 7 users, he would have done what he wanted to do and not looked back.
When I was at university in the UK, 1987/88 I think, we had to do all our assignments on computers. This was generally word processing, programming and some graphics. There was a room full of Macintosh and an adjacent room full of IBM PC. I can‘t remember what the IBM’s were but they were running GEM. At peak times there was always a queue for the Macs. The IBM room only ever had a few brave souls.
Several times I got bored queuing for Mac’s and went to use an IBM. Within 5 mins they’d usual crash and reboot which in those days took an age. So I’d walk out and rejoin the end of the queue for the Macs. lesson learnt, happy days!
Your salary inflated too.
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Rose-colored glasses.
I put my Apple //+ with three floppy drives, modem card, printer buffer card, and Apple tube monitor using green text on black background for sale the next day. I wanted the Lisa, but could not afford it. I carried the Mac to work in the Apple backpack as soon as it was made for over a year. I blew my co-workers minds, as well as my back 😁. I could not afford a printer, but typed in reports, and then dictated the results on tape for typing!
So pardon the red, there was some minor company info to block out.
Some people will always argue ridiculous things. For instance, if someone wants to think Android’s 80% market share or the Mac’s installed base of ≈8% is proof that iPhone and Mac suck, who cares. They’re both superior for my purposes, and that’s all that matters to me.
People should buy whatever best suits their requirements, preference and budget. “Superiority” is a relative concept, and people will disagree. If anyone, even a family member (against my advice maybe, but sometimes it’s the best choice), wants to buy a Windows PC or an Android phone, awesome. Doesn’t affect me, have at it... but I’m also not going to be able to help you much if you need technical support 🆘 ⌨ 🖥
Preach on. I remember the Apple ][ vs Mac wars. Although Mac won the ][gs had the first color finder.
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MS actually licensed what became DOS from another company, Seattle Computer Works,IIRC; and eventually bought them. IBM considered CP/M but went with DOS. CP/M was more popular but eventually lost out to DOS.
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When they only mare the Apple ][
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From Wikipedia
The original retail price of the computer was US$1298 (with 4 kB of RAM) and US$2638 (with the maximum 48 kB of RAM).
and
from 247wallst.com
1977
>Notable computer: Apple II
>Price tag: $1,298
>Inflation adjusted price: $5,079
Wow that makes me feel old. That was the year I graduated high school. I was the only kid in my class that had my own computer at home. I had saved up money for months to buy a used Tandy TRS-80 (aka "Trash 80") Model III with 4K of RAM and an external, acoustic phone modem. For anyone not familiar with acoustic modems, this was in the prehistoric days before anyone had Internet access at home. You had to call Compuserve or your local Bulletin Board Service (BBS) on your home telephone then place your telephone handset into a cradle where your modem would buzz and beep to transmit information over a telephone line. Good times 😂
The Mac Pro I am going to order is more than double of that.
I paid $2200.00 for a Mac 512K in 1985
I used it to produce much n my studios recording MIDI and automation on my mixing console.
I was pure magic at the time.
Well, apparently your username tries to portray yourself as a lot younger by using the term ‘kid’. 😁 But then again, it shows you over the course of history/time, how much technology has evolved into what it is today compared to what we remember from so long ago. Kind of crazy, isn’t it?
Ithink the idea of the iMac NOT to be modular. I don't believe it ever was
may I ask why and how? the storage still working?
A bit of perspective may be needed here.
Your Mac 512K could record/play MIDI and automate your mixing console - but with even a middling 2019 iMac, an audio interface and a few hundred bucks worth of software you don't need a mixing console, tape deck, effects units, synth modules, or backing orchestra or CD mastering kit (if you still need such a thing). All you need is a mic and whatever acoustic instruments you can play better than a MIDI sequencer.
In 1985, how much would it have cost you to walk into your favourite music/studio equipment store and say "I'll take one of everything" (Yes, including that $30k Fairlight CMI and the vintage Moog, that fancy new multi-track digital tape recorder that you've only got a poster of and the contents of your guitar pedal case)? ...because that's closer to what a couple of thousand in 2020 money gets you.
So, yeah you're comparing the 1985 minimum 'entry fee' into GUI computing and studio automation with the one-box equivalent of Paul McCartney's man cave.
The relative equivalent of an early Mac today is a $1100 entry-level iMac. "Relative" because, in reality, it's still several orders of magnitude more powerful and has applications way beyond the original Mac. If you're choosing a $12k+ Mac Pro setup it is because, in 2020, you can afford to spend 10x more than the bare minimum needed to do the job.
The relative equivalent of a Mac Pro in 1985 would have been some sort of specialist graphics workstation from Sun, Quantel or Silicon Graphics who probably wouldn't have wasted their time giving quotes to private individuals not called "George Lucas". The fact that Apple is offering something like the Mac Pro retail is really a sign that things have changed beyond recognition or reasonable comparison.
To get some perspective, let's turn that around: today, you can get a cheap-and-cheerful PC system for, say, $500 (probably less - cheapest all-in-one at l PC World is £370 and $1~£1 in computer dollars). No, its not a Mac, but its basically the same architecture and runs grown-up OS and applications (feel free to Hackintosh it if you think only MacOS is 'grown up') has a proper keyboard, display and a hard drive). There's not much software such a system won't run well enough for light use or to start learning.
So that's $160 in 1980s money. We're talking Sinclair ZX81 (Timex 1000) plus enough change for a second-hand TV and cassette recorder - or - before they came around - something with a hex keypad and 7-segment display. Now, massive kudos to Sinclair for - with 1980 tech - giving the masses the opportunity to start coding or play simple games - but that involved massive compromises. The then equivalent of a 2020 cheap PC would have been a CP/M system or Apple II costing at least $1000 (or $3000 adjusted).
Actually, both DOS and CP/M-86 were supported on the PC for a while but DOS won because it was cheaper.
...but its worth pointing out that DOS and CP/M, while not actually compatible, were very, very similar operating systems, so it wasn't like a "CP/M or Unix" decision (Unix would have required a hard drive, anyway). Porting CP/M code to DOS was not a big deal compared with the problem that CP/M software had to be distributed in multiple disc formats and anything with even a full-screen text UI had to be patched for each system it supported (popular apps like WordStar came with a 'patch' utility that let you enter the screen size and all the control codes needed to move the cursor etc. or - if my memory serves - the addresses for a memory-mapped display). The fact that the IBM PC 'standardised' the disc format, video displays and more made it far easier to support, but it also meant that the IBM PC was effectively a closed, proprietary system since you couldn't make a truly compatible system without IBM's proprietary BIOS firmware, which was separate from DOS and fiercely defended. It was "open" in the sense that IBM would let anybody write software or make expansion cards for it, which was a big deal by the standards of the mainframe industry of the time, but already standard practice in the personal computing industry.
At launch, its big party trick was what-you-see-is-what-you-get wordprocessing with embedded graphics - which was really night-and-day compared with PC WPs of the time and far more user friendly. There was also "Mac Draw" which was a really simple-to-use vector graphics program for drawing diagrams etc. and I know of people who are still lamenting its demise today (sure, Illustrator, Affinity Designer etc. are vastly more powerful, but compared to MacDraw they have a vertical learning curve).
But, yeah, a Mac on day one was a bit of a gimmick - MacWrite, MacPaint etc. were visually impressive but quite limited once you got past the UI. However wait a while, and Apple came up with a killer combo - the first remotely affordable laser printer and simple plug-and-play LocalTalk networking that let you share the (still expensive) laser printer between a small workgroup of Macs. Bingo, Apple just invented a whole new field of human endeavour called "desktop publishing" which is, arguably, what really put the Mac on the map.
The best thing about that era was no internet so we didn’t have to suffer through posts like this!
As I was reading this, I had the thought that the same could be said for a fair to middling iPad. Plus, you can work anywhere (good for capturing environmental audio) and, with cellular access, can even submit from anywhere.
Oh, you did have to suffer though it, but it was most likely posted to your local BBS?
