Yep I did. A Mac Plus was my first Mac, with the signatures of the creators inside the case. That said, in truth my Lisa came first and Lisa seems to have been forgotten. It was the first draw dropping GUI available to the public and I loved mine.
Of course prior to the Lisa and Macs I had numerous Apple ][ s and Apple /// s. Loved them all to bits. I had Appe ][ s networked with fiber optic cable and shared hard drives. Often people don't realize how far Apple ][s could be pushed. Just don't ask about record locking ... cough cough ... (forgive the funny spacing, I kept invoking strike outs! lol)
The Commodore Amiga was released in 1985 and was much, much more advanced compared to the Mac. It had pre-emptive multitasking (something that was introduced on MacOS X!), 4096 colors and was a true multi-media computer. Apple was scared shitless when the Amiga was introduced. Their Mac could only do 2 colors and had beep-sounds. The Amiga and its OS kicked ass. The Amiga was much cheaper as well.
I owned the Amiga 500, 1200 and 4000 and these computers to me changed the world. They symbolized the change from fancy calculators to creative multimedia tools. Shame Commodore sucked at marketing and didn't had the marketing brilliance of Steve Jobs.
Guess I'm saying that I personally don't consider Apple to have changed the world with Mac, at all. To me, Apple changed the world with iPod and iPhone.
I had the Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 and an Emplant board with Mac ROMs. I had a Mac Iifx at work and I could get by coding at home on the Emplant. I also did some very rudimentary 3D (lightwave) and video work on the Amiga side (I bought a used Toaster at one point).
However, Steve did change the world with the Mac. The Amiga, for all it's strengths, never had the same usability and software support as the Mac. I could do things on the Mac I could never do on the Amiga. It wasn't just marketing but a real focus on the user. "The computer for the rest of us" wasn't just a slogan but an actual design goal.
One that Apple was ruthlessly driven toward by Jobs and not really achieved until the iPad.
I had the Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 and an Emplant board with Mac ROMs. I had a Mac Iifx at work and I could get by coding at home on the Emplant. I also did some very rudimentary 3D (lightwave) and video work on the Amiga side (I bought a used Toaster at one point).
However, Steve did change the world with the Mac. The Amiga, for all it's strengths, never had the same usability and software support as the Mac. I could do things on the Mac I could never do on the Amiga. It wasn't just marketing but a real focus on the user. "The computer for the rest of us" wasn't just a slogan but an actual design goal.
One that Apple was ruthlessly driven toward by Jobs and not really achieved until the iPad.
My IMac Ifx is sitting here next to me. It stopped working so I am swapping out the two on board batteries and will try over the weekend to get her going again.
My IMac Ifx is sitting here next to me. It stopped working so I am swapping out the two on board batteries and will try over the weekend to get her going again.
Great machine. I had all sorts of insanely expensive cards in mine including a huge assed ram disk card (probably a whole 512K or something stupidly small by todays standards). I had a Vax 8500 processing data to send to my Mac so I could turn the data into useful color images. NCSA had released some HDF and plotting/visualization tools for the Mac that were extremely capable.
I guess I could probably have done the same thing on a SGI but we didn't have but a few of those around.
However, Steve did change the world with the Mac. The Amiga, for all it's strengths, never had the same usability and software support as the Mac. I could do things on the Mac I could never do on the Amiga.
This is exactly what I was going to say. While the Amiga had great games (Dungeon Master!) and artistic software, it's overall usability and usefulness in a wide variety of areas was lacking relative to the Macintosh. It was definitely the gamer's machine of choice for that era, but never really broke outside of that market.
Oh, and the first Mac I owned was the 1st gen TiBook (though I had used plenty of others before that). At the point where I could afford to buy my own computer (mid 90s), Macs didn't have as much appeal. OS X changed that.
I kinda hoped they would't do anything like this. First thing Steve Jobs did after his return in 1997 was eliminating the "Mac museum" in the headquarters. Never look back. Moreover, he considered most of their products since 1985 to 1997 total crap (which they obviously were at least in some cases).
That's all fine and dandy, but Steve jobs is dead so his opinion about the products he wasn't directly a part of is moot.
Tim Cook is running Apple now and he is proud of the company history and feels the desire to share that pride. If Steve jobs doesn't like it, he can get stuffed
My first was a Mac 512. It got me and a number of my friends through college--I had a walk-in closet, and I would put the Mac in there so they could work through the night without keeping me up.
I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be a few facts that got mixed up on their website.
The PowerMac 8500 wasn't the first Mac with A/V capabilities. That would have been the Quadra 840av.
And the Macintosh TV wasn't the only black Apple desktop before the nMP, unless you absolutely want to define the blackish appearance of the 20th anniversary Mac as "not black". I guess technically, this is true, but everybody I know always considered that black.
I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be a few facts that got mixed up on their website.
The PowerMac 8500 wasn't the first Mac with A/V capabilities. That would have been the Quadra 840av.
And the Macintosh TV wasn't the only black Apple desktop before the nMP, unless you absolutely want to define the blackish appearance of the 20th anniversary Mac as "not black". I guess technically, this is true, but everybody I know always considered that black.
Taking an historical view of the home computer, in terms of who did what first and what features survive to the present day, you still have to give the Mac credit for a GUI OS. The preemptive multitasking of Workbench was nice but there was no accompanying memory protection so 1 app could still take down the whole system.
Yes, Apple had the GUI sooner; Commodore released their Amiga almost 2 years later. Steve was smart enough to 'lend' its GUI from Xerox Labs, and managed to make it more user friendly.
Memory protection wasn't available on Amiga and it indeed sucked. However, classic MacOS didn't have memory protection as well. In fact, MacOS 1 to 4 didn't even had the ability of running multiple apps at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
What makes the Amiga stand out from an historical viewpoint (for me) is more it's hardware. It was the first home computer (as far as I know) to come with a dedicated GPU that was more than just a framebuffer. It had the same Motorola 68000 as the Mac, but due to having a whole other processor just for graphics, it left Mac graphics in the dust. Today, it is taken for granted that every computer needs a GPU, even if it is just one built in to the CPU. That is the real legacy of the Amiga.
I agree from a general point of view. To me personally, both the software and hardware were the legacy. But, I'm subjective having used it for so long. Especially Workbench, Deluxe Paint IV, OctaMED, AMOS Pro and the many high-end games that ran on the Amiga.
I agree dacloo. The Amiga was amazing. Not to mention a games powerhouse beyond its years. I and most of my friends had one.
It was only when Amiga died that I ended up with a Mac. I think my parents viewed Mac OS as being closer to Amiga OS and therefore easier to transition and adapt. Plus they had Macs where they worked. Funny how things work out.
If I remember correctly, the root cause of the demise of the Amiga was that it used a non IBM PC hardware architecture. The problem was that the rest of the IBM PC industry continued using the standard architecture and wrote graphic software that communicated with the graphics hardware directly. Thus, one could buy any IBM PC compatible machine and run (play) software on it from numerous vendors. (That is, bypass the DOS graphics API by talking directly to the video hardware. --Real Mode anybody?)
My first experience with a Mac was in November 1983. I owned a computer store less than a mile from Apple HQ. Apple asked if they could film a promotional video in our store.
Long story short. They took over the store, papered over the windows & doors, kept customers out...
They had 2 Macs and loads of Apple people, actors, techies.
After it was done, Bill Atkinson gave me a personal demo and then I had about 15 minutes of hands-on time:
Here's the ad -- result of about 18 hours of activity;
My first Mac was a Powerbook Pismo G3 w/dvd. I had the dual batteries for it, which lasted for ages (compared to other laptops at the time), and I loved that machine and thought that it looked great, the keyboard was great and I just liked it in general even though it's probably incredibly weak by today's standards of course. Hell, my iPad beats the hell out of it, in terms of raw power and especially in graphics power. I forget what the max RAM for that machine was, but whatever it was, I had it installed to the max.
In 2001 though, the Pismo suited me well, and I used it on many projects.
You're going to have to change your handle to Apple Prismo then
Here it all started with a 128K Mac in September 1984. Then on to the MacPlus, Mac II, Mac Iici (Home), Mac Iici (Office), added several Daystar Accelerators over the years and my Iici from home was retired in September 2005 with an iMac 20" PowerPC based, added iMac 27" with Intel i7 in June 2010 and finally MacBookPro 13" in October 2010. Getting itchy again soon.
Steve was smart enough to 'lend' its GUI from Xerox Labs, and managed to make it more user friendly.
This is misleading, Jef Raskin was the father of the Macintosh, and GUI concepts predated Xerox. Apple built a new product with a different purpose from Xerox using some of these same concepts and inventing others. link
I kinda hoped they would't do anything like this. First thing Steve Jobs did after his return in 1997 was eliminating the "Mac museum" in the headquarters. Never look back. Moreover, he considered most of their products since 1985 to 1997 total crap (which they obviously were at least in some cases).
When we want to look at Apple's latest decisions through the lens of Steve Jobs, we should remember that there was still context in his decisions.
I think the circumstances are different now. Apple was near death before Steve Jobs returned so it made sense to get rid of the "Mac museum". Now that the company has revived and the Mac in no longer the hub of the Apple universe, Apple is reminding users that great things happened (and still happen) on a Mac.
Considering taking out my Mac 512k enhanced out of its box for an awkward family photo.
Steve was smart enough to 'lend' its GUI from Xerox Labs, and managed to make it more user friendly.
This is misleading, Jef Raskin was the father of the Macintosh, and GUI concepts predated Xerox. Apple built a new product with a different purpose from Xerox using some of these same concepts and inventing others. link
If nothing else, the Mac popularized the use of Torx screws
Comments
Yep I did. A Mac Plus was my first Mac, with the signatures of the creators inside the case. That said, in truth my Lisa came first and Lisa seems to have been forgotten. It was the first draw dropping GUI available to the public and I loved mine.
Of course prior to the Lisa and Macs I had numerous Apple ][ s and Apple /// s. Loved them all to bits. I had Appe ][ s networked with fiber optic cable and shared hard drives. Often people don't realize how far Apple ][s could be pushed. Just don't ask about record locking ... cough cough ... (forgive the funny spacing, I kept invoking strike outs! lol)
The Commodore Amiga was released in 1985 and was much, much more advanced compared to the Mac. It had pre-emptive multitasking (something that was introduced on MacOS X!), 4096 colors and was a true multi-media computer. Apple was scared shitless when the Amiga was introduced. Their Mac could only do 2 colors and had beep-sounds. The Amiga and its OS kicked ass. The Amiga was much cheaper as well.
I owned the Amiga 500, 1200 and 4000 and these computers to me changed the world. They symbolized the change from fancy calculators to creative multimedia tools. Shame Commodore sucked at marketing and didn't had the marketing brilliance of Steve Jobs.
Guess I'm saying that I personally don't consider Apple to have changed the world with Mac, at all. To me, Apple changed the world with iPod and iPhone.
I had the Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 and an Emplant board with Mac ROMs. I had a Mac Iifx at work and I could get by coding at home on the Emplant. I also did some very rudimentary 3D (lightwave) and video work on the Amiga side (I bought a used Toaster at one point).
However, Steve did change the world with the Mac. The Amiga, for all it's strengths, never had the same usability and software support as the Mac. I could do things on the Mac I could never do on the Amiga. It wasn't just marketing but a real focus on the user. "The computer for the rest of us" wasn't just a slogan but an actual design goal.
One that Apple was ruthlessly driven toward by Jobs and not really achieved until the iPad.
My IMac Ifx is sitting here next to me. It stopped working so I am swapping out the two on board batteries and will try over the weekend to get her going again.
My IMac Ifx is sitting here next to me. It stopped working so I am swapping out the two on board batteries and will try over the weekend to get her going again.
Great machine. I had all sorts of insanely expensive cards in mine including a huge assed ram disk card (probably a whole 512K or something stupidly small by todays standards). I had a Vax 8500 processing data to send to my Mac so I could turn the data into useful color images. NCSA had released some HDF and plotting/visualization tools for the Mac that were extremely capable.
I guess I could probably have done the same thing on a SGI but we didn't have but a few of those around.
However, Steve did change the world with the Mac. The Amiga, for all it's strengths, never had the same usability and software support as the Mac. I could do things on the Mac I could never do on the Amiga.
This is exactly what I was going to say. While the Amiga had great games (Dungeon Master!) and artistic software, it's overall usability and usefulness in a wide variety of areas was lacking relative to the Macintosh. It was definitely the gamer's machine of choice for that era, but never really broke outside of that market.
Oh, and the first Mac I owned was the 1st gen TiBook (though I had used plenty of others before that). At the point where I could afford to buy my own computer (mid 90s), Macs didn't have as much appeal. OS X changed that.
128
512
II
SE30
PB1400
iBook
iBookG4
MacBook
That's all fine and dandy, but Steve jobs is dead so his opinion about the products he wasn't directly a part of is moot.
Tim Cook is running Apple now and he is proud of the company history and feels the desire to share that pride. If Steve jobs doesn't like it, he can get stuffed
I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be a few facts that got mixed up on their website.
The PowerMac 8500 wasn't the first Mac with A/V capabilities. That would have been the Quadra 840av.
And the Macintosh TV wasn't the only black Apple desktop before the nMP, unless you absolutely want to define the blackish appearance of the 20th anniversary Mac as "not black". I guess technically, this is true, but everybody I know always considered that black.
Taking an historical view of the home computer, in terms of who did what first and what features survive to the present day, you still have to give the Mac credit for a GUI OS. The preemptive multitasking of Workbench was nice but there was no accompanying memory protection so 1 app could still take down the whole system.
Yes, Apple had the GUI sooner; Commodore released their Amiga almost 2 years later. Steve was smart enough to 'lend' its GUI from Xerox Labs, and managed to make it more user friendly.
Memory protection wasn't available on Amiga and it indeed sucked. However, classic MacOS didn't have memory protection as well. In fact, MacOS 1 to 4 didn't even had the ability of running multiple apps at the same time.
What makes the Amiga stand out from an historical viewpoint (for me) is more it's hardware. It was the first home computer (as far as I know) to come with a dedicated GPU that was more than just a framebuffer. It had the same Motorola 68000 as the Mac, but due to having a whole other processor just for graphics, it left Mac graphics in the dust. Today, it is taken for granted that every computer needs a GPU, even if it is just one built in to the CPU. That is the real legacy of the Amiga.
I agree from a general point of view. To me personally, both the software and hardware were the legacy. But, I'm subjective having used it for so long. Especially Workbench, Deluxe Paint IV, OctaMED, AMOS Pro and the many high-end games that ran on the Amiga.
That timeline is jacked. It leaves out two of my favorite Macs, The Macintosh II fx and the original Mac Pro.
I agree dacloo. The Amiga was amazing. Not to mention a games powerhouse beyond its years. I and most of my friends had one.
It was only when Amiga died that I ended up with a Mac. I think my parents viewed Mac OS as being closer to Amiga OS and therefore easier to transition and adapt. Plus they had Macs where they worked. Funny how things work out.
If I remember correctly, the root cause of the demise of the Amiga was that it used a non IBM PC hardware architecture. The problem was that the rest of the IBM PC industry continued using the standard architecture and wrote graphic software that communicated with the graphics hardware directly. Thus, one could buy any IBM PC compatible machine and run (play) software on it from numerous vendors. (That is, bypass the DOS graphics API by talking directly to the video hardware. --Real Mode anybody?)
Long story short. They took over the store, papered over the windows & doors, kept customers out...
They had 2 Macs and loads of Apple people, actors, techies.
After it was done, Bill Atkinson gave me a personal demo and then I had about 15 minutes of hands-on time:
Here's the ad -- result of about 18 hours of activity;
[VIDEO]
My first Mac was a Powerbook Pismo G3 w/dvd. I had the dual batteries for it, which lasted for ages (compared to other laptops at the time), and I loved that machine and thought that it looked great, the keyboard was great and I just liked it in general even though it's probably incredibly weak by today's standards of course. Hell, my iPad beats the hell out of it, in terms of raw power and especially in graphics power. I forget what the max RAM for that machine was, but whatever it was, I had it installed to the max.
In 2001 though, the Pismo suited me well, and I used it on many projects.
You're going to have to change your handle to Apple Prismo then
Here it all started with a 128K Mac in September 1984. Then on to the MacPlus, Mac II, Mac Iici (Home), Mac Iici (Office), added several Daystar Accelerators over the years and my Iici from home was retired in September 2005 with an iMac 20" PowerPC based, added iMac 27" with Intel i7 in June 2010 and finally MacBookPro 13" in October 2010. Getting itchy again soon.
Steve was smart enough to 'lend' its GUI from Xerox Labs, and managed to make it more user friendly.
This is misleading, Jef Raskin was the father of the Macintosh, and GUI concepts predated Xerox. Apple built a new product with a different purpose from Xerox using some of these same concepts and inventing others. link
I kinda hoped they would't do anything like this. First thing Steve Jobs did after his return in 1997 was eliminating the "Mac museum" in the headquarters. Never look back. Moreover, he considered most of their products since 1985 to 1997 total crap (which they obviously were at least in some cases).
When we want to look at Apple's latest decisions through the lens of Steve Jobs, we should remember that there was still context in his decisions.
I think the circumstances are different now. Apple was near death before Steve Jobs returned so it made sense to get rid of the "Mac museum". Now that the company has revived and the Mac in no longer the hub of the Apple universe, Apple is reminding users that great things happened (and still happen) on a Mac.
Considering taking out my Mac 512k enhanced out of its box for an awkward family photo.
Steve was smart enough to ‘lend’ its GUI from Xerox Labs…
Just shut up and leave.
If nothing else, the Mac popularized the use of Torx screws