What's MAC stand for?

[ChrisH3677]

I'm a recent switcher so this question was probably discussed...um... well, probably 20 years ago, but it's new for me.

I know Mac is short for Macintosh (does anyone know why they chose the name Macintosh?), but noticing that WinTel has shanghaied the "PC" acronym which in truth also applies to Macs, I was wondering what clever acronyms we could come up with for MAC.

eg
My Apple Computer
My Amazing Computer
Magnificent Apple Computer
Marvelous Awesome Computer

I'd be curious and amused to see what others people here could come up with.

 

[Sun Baked]

For some reason I alway thought...

MAC = Media Access Controller

 

[mrjamin]

www.AcronymFinder.com:

MAC Mandatory Access Control
MAC Media Access Control
MAC Atlantic Mackerel (FAO fish species code)
MAC Chief Machine Accountant (Naval Rating)
MAC Immaculata
MAC Macaroni
Mac Macedonian (linguistics)
MAC Machine Address Code
MAC Machine Aided Cognition
MAC MacPaint (File Name Extension)
MAC Macro (File Name Extension)
MAC Magazine Association of Canada
MAC Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (Babylon 6)
MAC Main Automation Contractor
MAC Maintenance Action Code
MAC Maintenance Administration Center
MAC Maintenance Allocation Chart
MAC Maintenance Availability Computer
MAC Management Action Center

as for clever acronyms; its 2am, i'm tired. Correction i'm on my way to bed [steps away from computer]

 

[stoid]

Obviously the Macintosh name came from the fact that macintosh is a type of Apple, and no one would be a computer called "Granny Smith"

Could the cheese grater style of the new G% be to bring together the Mac & Cheese in the computer world. Steve (and maybe good ol' Jon Ive) know that answer.

 

[alia]

Yeah, I suppose naming the computer line Red Delicious would have been a little weird.



Alia

 

[rainman::|:|]

notable names in the apple theme include pippin, newton, appleseed (tho originally, mac cluster = appleseed as unix cluster = beowulf, until apple adopted it). i'm waiting for the Jonagold or Fiji

pnw

 

[Horrortaxi]

Originally posted by stoid
no one would be a computer called "Granny Smith"

Maybe, but Granny Smith was the name of my 2nd hard drive for a long time. I changed it to Fuji eventually. I drew the line at Golden Delicious though--that was a little too much for me.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Interesting Stoid, I've never heard of a Macintosh apple. Maybe we don't grow them down here in Australia. Hmm?

But we do have have "Pink Lady". Might have worked given the Mac's predecessor was Lisa.... Nahh!!

 

[benixau]

Originally posted by ChrisH3677
Interesting Stoid, I've never heard of a Macintosh apple. Maybe we don't grow them down here in Australia. Hmm?

But we do have have "Pink Lady". Might have worked given the Mac's predecessor was Lisa.... Nahh!!

bl0ddy victorians GO NSW

 

[yamabushi]

I heard a rumor once that Apple was considering eventually using another name for their computers if and when they underwent a radical transformation. Some people at the time started tossing around various names of apples for the new computer. Of course that was back in the Amelio days - they may not want to get rid of such an established brand now.

 

[ftaok]

Originally posted by stoid
Obviously the Macintosh name came from the fact that macintosh is a type of Apple, and no one would be a computer called "Granny Smith"

Actually, the apple that you refer to is the McIntosh apple. That's how Apple originally wanted to spell it. The thing is, there is/was a hi-fi company called McIntosh. So in order to avoid any contraversy, they called it the Macintosh.

Maybe they had learned something from the first Beatles (Apple Corp.) lawsuit.

 

[phaeton]

hmmm

isn't macintosh a very irish name...?

isn't apple very close to ireland?

maybe it's a kind of apple that only grows there...

maybe some guy called... geoffrey mc intosh gave steve his change when he needed to make a telephone call to set up apple®

who knows
not me...

 

[MacBoyX]

I did a search on dictionary.com for Macintosh where it did speak about our beloved Macs...even going to far to say...

"...If "Macintosh" were an acronym, some say it would stand for
"Many Applications Crash, If Not, The Operating System Hangs".
While this was true for pre Mac OS 9 systems, it is less true
for Mac OS 9, and totally incorrect for Mac OS X, which has
protected memory, so even if one application crashes, the
system and other applications are unaffected..."

WOW!

Macintosh Apples are widely available in the US right along side of Granny Smiths.

I wonder still if someone told Steve during a rain storm in California that he had a nice Macintosh on (british term for raincoat) and he said "hang on a moment..." and the rest was history.

What I'd like to know (since my WinTel friends keep asking) is how the name Macintosh which was a MODEL of Apple computer got to be the term by which we refer to ALL Apple Computers these days? A PowerMac is a Macintosh but is a PowerBook?

I tell them to leave me alone and go fix their Windows machines, but I'd really like to have a better answer!

macboyX