Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I still have a fully functional dual G4 1GHZ Quicksilver loaded with os9 software including Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools and Sound Designer 2.83 with an Audiomedia III card from DigiDesign.

I HAVE THEE LARGEST OS9 software collection on the planet.
Do you still use it for anything?
 
I don't see what's wrong with modern Mac UIs. Everything else seems like the right balance between simplified and cluttered... except for iTunes aka Music, which hides things in weird places and also keeps changing for no reason.

Web interfaces are a different story. Most of them waste 80% of the page on margins and other uselessness. MacRumors did it right for once.

iOS is a cluttered mess with incoherent locations for settings and controls. easy to get lost in.

macOS applications and UI in general is very flat and settings are not as obvious as they once were. some apps are terrible such as Music since its not a native app. the experience across apple OS environments is also not cohesive, safari for example is a mess between them both.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
UI's now are overly cluttered or simplified and loose the intent of the application and the purpose.

To be fair, if we tried to use those antique UI's to run today's applications, we'd quickly run into issues that would require different tradeoffs. Normal people greatly underestimate how difficult it is to get one single set of rules and standards to apply across the board.

As much as I miss the days of OS9, I don't think for a moment that it would age well if we were still using with modern applications. Of course, I wouldn't mind if most modern applications took a time warp back to 2001. Stuff is sure slicker today, but I don't remember feeling for lack of anything where it mattered most back then.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Captain Trips
I have a thing about platinum...And lots of machines to run it on!

for_macrumors.jpg
 
That's a great video. Mac OS 9 had more personality than any operating system and is still the most user friendly operating system ever. It just needed a firewall, a multitasking kernel and modern graphics/audio support and I could have kept using it forever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
Unfortunately, older versions of Mac OS don't scale on todays modern resolutions! Here's my M1 MacBook Air running 9.0.4 in SheepShaver 1650x1080 which seems to be the highest res I can get out of it.

Screenshot 2021-12-24 at 17.32.15.png


For more random old tech pics, I usually post them on Instagram

 
I still have a fully functional dual G4 1GHZ Quicksilver loaded with os9 software including Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools and Sound Designer 2.83 with an Audiomedia III card from DigiDesign.

I HAVE THEE LARGEST OS9 software collection on the planet.

Macintosh Garden has the biggest collection :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
1000 free hours on AOL FTW!

And when you tried to cancel, they'd give you another free 1000 hours. ?

It was nice getting free internet back then. Just rinse and repeat with AOL, MSN, CompuServe, Prodigy, Juno, MindSpring, Earthlink, NetZero

The internet was an almost lovely place until social media and crypto toxicity came around.

I am willing to forgive AOL and MySpace because of everything that came after.
 
Nice attempt by the author, but in reality it looked better than that. Plus that look is still better than modern looks. I will take that over the horrid Android, or some Linux DEs like Cinnamon.

Notice how the interface is not rainbow vomit and how it focuses on content.
It’s something that died with the introduction of flat over the top saturated UI elements.

I wish Mac OS would allow users to theme or at least to provide the Aqua interface alternative.

I have been using Mac for like 20 years and iOS for like 11 years, I still do not know how to do the finger gestures on iPad and the multi tasking thing.

Macs interface used to make it easier for the average person to use software so much so they had 1 button mouse to not confuse the user, now its convoluted mess. The settings on iOS is horrendous , the only way I can get to what I want is using the search function.

Mac OS 9 and all the ones before it crashed way too often. Daily crashes was the norm in my experience. Also OS 8 was the real star. OS 9 was just a slight (and bloated) refinement of OS 8.

This is something people just do not appreciate enough now days. I will have to give it to Windows too that does not crash near as much as Win98 back then. It really crashed on random just because. Mac was better afaik.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
Can’t imagine how hungry Google chrome would have been in 1999

The video is great
1.2mb max. Google chrome started as a much lighter weight browsers compared to everything else. That’s why I switched to it. Then it grew and became the most hungry browser there was, which is why I switched to safari.
 
FYI: MacOS 9 also included Netscape Navigator, it was just buried in a folder. Steve got booed on stage and said because Apple believes in choice, Netscape would also be includes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
Oh I remember those days. But as i recall most were using dialup modems in those days so video conferencing was only available in schools and corporations.
By 99 a lot of people had cable modems or DSL. A lot slower than today for sure. But I'd expect it was fast enough for 320x240 15fps webcams. Not that I'd know. Since I was the only one I knew with a webcam. A Connectix Quickcam. Which was my only way to get a picture of myself onto my computer in the mid 90's.

Does that make me a hipster? Since I was taking selfies and posting them. Before it was cool.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jackoverfull
To be fair, if we tried to use those antique UI's to run today's applications, we'd quickly run into issues that would require different tradeoffs. Normal people greatly underestimate how difficult it is to get one single set of rules and standards to apply across the board.

As much as I miss the days of OS9, I don't think for a moment that it would age well if we were still using with modern applications. Of course, I wouldn't mind if most modern applications took a time warp back to 2001. Stuff is sure slicker today, but I don't remember feeling for lack of anything where it mattered most back then.

my point is that the intention and purposefulness (?) of app UI nowadays is to cover up a messy backend. Apple's credo was inside and out should be polished and beautiful not just one side, which is why the internals of most modern Macs and apple products are crafted well inside and out. Where as app UI nowadays is too veneer. I'm not saying go back to this specific design, but UI needs to be more intentional and not confusing, messy, buried, etc.
 
I still have my Pismo… I need to get it out and use it for a bit :)

The one thing I miss most about pre-macOS was the ability to roll up the window into its title bar like a window shade. The function was actually called WindowShade, I think! I so badly wish I could have the functionality again. There are some apps that do it, but they are very hack-ish and don’t work as well as I’d like. I still don’t know why Apple removed it…
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.