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Apple Celebrates Thirty Years of Macintosh with Homepage Tribute, Visual Timeline, 'Mac 30' Video

longofest said:
One argument is that Apple found designs that work and are sticking with them. Another is that they just have lost their drive to try bold new ideas as often. Maybe a combination of the two?
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Maybe.

No wait, I just checked, it's only the first thing you said.
 
TheRainKing said:
I was adding my entry to the 'Your First Mac' page and I noticed that the top 5 Macs are from the 80's. I get the impression people are just clicking the first Macs on the screen instead of scrolling to their actual first Mac.
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Not everyone. I'm a little unclear as to mine, either the 512k or the Plus. I think it was the 512.
 
Apple Mac. The revolution. The rest is history
http://www.mackido.com/History/index.html

It all started at the*Department of Defense (Defense Department, USDOD, DOD, DoD or the Pentagon), from where Xerox took ideas, from where Apple took idead to make the real practical revolution: the Mac.
 
1984... I was a newbie in the work force and recently had purchased the only computer I could afford: a KayPro II. For an aspiring writer who previously had used a typewriter, it was amazing. I didn't encounter Macs until I joined the Hayes modem company in 1989, but for the first two years, I only used them in my capacity as a tech-support rep to troubleshoot modem problems for customers. In 1991, I moved to the technical writing department, where they used Macs, and I finally experienced what they were capable of doing. I was blown away by WYSIWYG, and I desperately wanted a Mac of my own, but they were too pricey for me. When a coworker anounced that she was selling her Mac IIce for a reasonable price, I jumped on it. I remember how thrilled I was when I upgraded the graphics adapter from 16-color to 256-color, and then when I bought a MIDI software program for my synthesizers. I upgraded to a Power Mac G4 in 2000, and then a MacBook Pro in 2008, and then a Mac mini in 2013. It's hard to imagine my life without Apple products.
 
Will do good said:
Happy birthday Mac. I can't believe I've been a Mac user for 30 years:eek:
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Wish I was over 30 so I could make that claim as well! I've just been a Mac for as long as my life has allowed!

I don't remember what the first computer I used was, but the first one I do remember was a Quadra 700, followed by a Quadra 840 AV. Those were the days. My first personal computer that I bought was a B/W G3 tower. What a mighty computer that was! I still have it. I don't think I could ever get rid of it. Too many memories.
 
lostngone said:
Macintosh timeline...

I am surprised it shows people were using "Internet & Email" as far back as 1989...

I thought the same thing!! Internet was created in 1989, and didn't really gain traction until 1995 with AOL.

To be fair the worlds very first web server was developed on a NEXT Computer, so not quite a Mac but became the platform for all future mac development post 2000's era.
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What an awful, awful, awful, awful video.

It looks and sounds like some kind of generic, corporate marketing nonsense. And who cares about a bunch of pretentious ****s going on about the importance of the Mac to their work and creativity? What is that? Gah! That's the exact opposite of what I thought was so cool about the Mac when I first saw it--that it allowed people not halfway up their own backside to put the computer to work. And to have fun doing it.

Moby? Really, Apple?

Sadly, the site appears to focus on these same people and not on the machines. I'd preferred to have seen a gallery of Macs over the years, interviews with the people who made them, not glorifying these self-absorbed types.

Wow, what a complete and utter miss on the part of Apple. This makes the Mac look staid and boring.
 
inkswamp said:
What an awful, awful, awful, awful video.

It looks and sounds like some kind of generic, corporate marketing nonsense. And who cares about a bunch of pretentious ****s going on about the importance of the Mac to their work and creativity? What is that? Gah! That's the exact opposite of what I thought was so cool about the Mac when I first saw it--that it allowed people not halfway up their own backside to put the computer to work. And to have fun doing it.

Moby? Really, Apple?

Sadly, the site appears to focus on these same people and not on the machines. I'd preferred to have seen a gallery of Macs over the years, interviews with the people who made them, not glorifying these self-absorbed types.

Wow, what a complete and utter miss on the part of Apple. This makes the Mac look staid and boring.
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Maybe they did that because Apple has always been about creating computers that get the technology out of the way of people doing what they need to do, especially in the creative fields. With that in mind, they wouldn't want to create a nerd video, although for some of us that would be interesting, too. And I don't think passionate people are self-absorbed at all, maybe because I don't find their ambition and talent intimidating.
 
People who didn't grow up in the US, or younger people, might not remember the computer landscape 30 years ago.

Before the IBM PC, there were 6-8 companies who made computers, all incompatible with each other, and nobody had more than say 20% of the market. The closest thing to a standard was Microsoft Basic. Apple was one of these companies with the Apple II.

By the time the IBM PC came out and dominated the market, even the Apple II would wither and die (IIgs, etc) and even try to be more like the Mac. In the wake of the Mac coming out, it was good but soon competitors came out lthat were better in various ways, like the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga.

At the time, I hated Apple -- I was in a different camp during the Apple II days, and I saw Apple as arrogant in those days for the high prices compared to the other competitors and for shutting down any 3rd party innovation (I have a story about an adapter to use Atari joysticks on the Apple II for a class project I can tell). The arrogance continued through the Mac of the 90's and the snarky PPC vs Intel and Guy Kawasaki era. Although I was still curious.

Then Steve comes back and buries the hatchet, putting an end to that era.

All those companies are gone, even IBM is out of the business (via sell off to Lenovo). But Apple, and the Mac, are still here.

Happy 30th, even though it's hate that turned to love.

(My first Mac was a PPC mini but I had used other people's Macs from time to time).

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ablashek said:
lostngone said:
Macintosh timeline...

I am surprised it shows people were using "Internet & Email" as far back as 1989...

I thought the same thing!! Internet was created in 1989, and didn't really gain traction until 1995 with AOL.
Click to expand...

The "internet" was developed in the late 60s by DARPA. There was no web, but there was certainly email, newsgroups, etc. At first it was defense bases, then defense contractors, then companies and universities. It was largely this way until the late 80s.

In parallel people used modems to access local bulletin board systems by phone modems, and over time those BBSs networked together to form larger systems.

Then came the service providers -- Compuserve (I think this was first and was created for stock quotes in the late 70s), AOL, Prodigy, etc.

Then ISPs popped up for getting on the real internet.

My recollection is the first web server and browser were created in 1992 at UNC and that became Netscape.
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The new section of Apple's site is a little confusing and hard to use, but visually it's a work of art... a graphic designers dream. :cool:

I wonder if they will upgrade everything to look like this.
 
I did notice one glaring mistake though, about the Macintosh TV:

It [..] was the only black Macintosh desktop until the introduction of the new Mac Pro.
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So I guess that black Performa I used in high school (incidentally, also with a TV/FM tuner in it) didn't actually exist, then?
 
Happy Birthday, Mac!

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They really did a superb job with the design of the homepage! What a great tribute! I enjoyed it!

My first Mac was Centris 610 but I used Mac OS before that on an Atari ST with the Aladdin emulator! :)
 
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