Remember before Apple was popular?

[mrsir2009]

Before all the iDevices, the iPods and that, when Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and then Steve came back and saved the day I reckon Apple was at its best from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s, because all the focus was on the Macs and not the iDevices.

Anyone remember that cool age?

 

[Looon]

Remember how Microsoft saved Apple

 

[GoCubsGo]

Yes but I don't know if Apple is any more or less cool today. Apple works for me so I am happy to pay the tax that comes with the logo.

 

[Designer Dale]

Yes, I remember, and it wasn't really cool in my opinion. Lots of bad business management and decisions like licensing the OS to third party companies like Power computing. That deal almost cost Apple the farm. The OS they were working on seemed like a never ending cycle. Copland, Gershwin and the BeOS showed promise but never made it out of the lab.

The PowerPC project was a huge technical achievement that led to chips that performed on par with the Intel offerings of the day, but Motorola never put enough of a push behind it to keep up with the competitors. I remember seeing a Mac tower with dual 604e processors clocked at 350MHz stuffed way up on the top shelf of an electronics store while the display tables had nothing close to it - all Windows PCs.

All of the above did yield a very busy rumors ecology, though. Reading MacAddict was a monthly ritual for me.

Keep in mind that the Apple that brought Steve Jobs back was preceded by the Apple that fired him.

Some History Links:

1990 - 1999: Decline and i-Revolution

Quest for the Operating System

Dale

Note: System 7.5 came on 40 floppies...

 

[shingi70]

Nope

 

[nxent]

Yes, I remember, and it wasn't really cool in my opinion. Lots of bad business management and decisions like licensing the OS to third party companies like Power computing. That deal almost cost Apple the farm. The OS they were working on seemed like a never ending cycle. Copland, Gershwin and the BeOS showed promise but never made it out of the lab.

The PowerPC project was a huge technical achievement that led to chips that performed on par with the Intel offerings of the day, but Motorola never put enough of a push behind it to keep up with the competitors. I remember seeing a Mac tower with dual 604e processors clocked at 350MHz stuffed way up on the top shelf of an electronics store while the display tables had nothing close to it - all Windows PCs.

All of the above did yield a very busy rumors ecology, though. Reading MacAddict was a monthly ritual for me.

Keep in mind that the Apple that brought Steve Jobs back was preceded by the Apple that fired him.

Some History Links:

1990 - 1999: Decline and i-Revolution

Quest for the Operating System

Dale

Note: System 7.5 came on 40 floppies...

Agreed. And i definitely don't miss any of the pre OS X operating systems where a crashing application brought down the entire OS.

 

[Consultant]

It's like people saying: remember computer before GUI? It was better back then.

Remember how Microsoft saved Apple

WRONG. Microsoft didn't "save" Apple.

Microsoft's investment was nominal to demonstrate that the major software developer will stick around.

 

[Looon]

LOL

Microsoft had to GIVE Apple that money so they could manage to stay afloat and so that they could have Office on their OS so that people might actually consider buying Apple computers

 

[G-Mo]

WRONG. Microsoft didn't "save" Apple.

Microsoft's investment was nominal to demonstrate that the major software developer will stick around.

$150 million is nominal to you??

They gave them the money for non-voting stock and made a long term commitment to develop and put Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer on the Mac.

That cash infusion and software commitment as well as some serious management and business changes "saved" Apple.

 

[Consultant]

$150 million is nominal to you??

They gave them the money for non-voting stock and made a long term commitment to develop and put Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer on the Mac.

That cash infusion and software commitment as well as some serious management and business changes "saved" Apple.

Fail and fail again. It was a "patent cross-license agreement."

In reality, remember the lawsuits Apple had against Microsoft about infringement? Microsoft had to license Apple property by paying Apple.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/592FE887-5CA1-4F30-BD62-407362B533B9.html

http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/AppleMicrosoft.html

 

[maflynn]

It's like people saying: remember computer before GUI? It was better back then.



WRONG. Microsoft didn't "save" Apple.

Microsoft's investment was nominal to demonstrate that the major software developer will stick around.

Their "nominal" investment along with promising to make Office of apple did indeed save apple. They needed the cash, they needed the application suite and they needed to show consumers, investors and programmers they were still relevant. By getting MS onboard they accomplished this. It only bought them some time, they needed to produce some great products like the bondi blue iMac which they did and the rest was history.

I remember it being a tough time using a mac at that point, but I'm happy things turned around.

 

[G-Mo]

Fail and fail again. It was a "patent cross-license agreement."

In reality, remember the lawsuits Apple had against Microsoft about infringement? Microsoft had to license Apple property by paying Apple.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/592FE887-5CA1-4F30-BD62-407362B533B9.html

http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/AppleMicrosoft.html

You should learn to read and not be a thread troll.

There were a lot of agreements that happened on Aug 6, 1997. There was a cross licensing arrangement, but the the cash was a straight up purchase of non-voting shares.

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/dayintech_0806/

 

[steadysignal]

Keep in mind that the Apple that brought Steve Jobs back was preceded by the Apple that fired him.

Some History Links:

1990 - 1999: Decline and i-Revolution

Quest for the Operating System

Dale

Note: System 7.5 came on 40 floppies...

thanks for the history lesson. those are good links.

 

[0098386]

I was only a kid back then, but Apple were always "there" in my childhood. Every school, college and university I attended had suites of Apple computers. Then when I left university everyone and their dog had an iPod.