iFixit goes back to the future, tears down original 128k Mac

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 27
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    How many people here miss the simplicity and speed of old computers? When I say speed I mean the speed with which they could accomplish a task. A long time ago these machines could do some tasks just as fast or even faster than a machine of today. This is only because they weren't running so many processes at once. One of those old machines would choke if it had to do anything graphical related to a current web browser, but give them a publishing task or spread sheet task and they were fast. I miss that.
    That is baloney put an old operating system on today's hardware and it will be thousands of times faster. I can remember waiting all night for my Mac Plus to finish a computation.
    I am gradually switching from conventional self contained computing to cloud computing. My need for speed is just in RAM for streaming videos. I don't need a fast CPU anymore. My low spec 2009 HP desktop is getting a RAM upgrade and a small SSD. This will give the convenience of fast opening programs and fast booting. The RAM will allow fast streaming and make the browser quick. When I open my files stored in the cloud it will be almost as fast as opening them from an internal drive.
    Wishful thinking, the cloud isn't very fast at all when it isn't available. Beyond that modern browsers run windows in separate processes so fast hardware is important otherwise you just overload your CPU.
    By putting a very bare bones version of GNU/Linux or possibly BSD on the machine, I'll be running a very fast OS on a fast SSD. I believe this type of machine will give me many years of really fast computing and internet browsing. It will be simple, uncomplicated, and trouble free. With almost all of the programs I'll ever need running in the cloud I won't need horsepower. I will just need an up to date browser. I'm going for simple.
    Well I applaud your recognition of Linux and BSD but those OS can get bogged down also. If your needs are simple a browser only approach might work. However for most of us there are just too many things that can't be done in a browser.
    IFixit promotes repairing machines in order to save money and to save the environment.
    No they promote repairing your machines so that they can make money. They make it acceptable by trying to appeal to people's other interests.
    It takes a lot of resources to manufacture an entirely new machine. Fixing or upgrading an older one that might use a bit more power is still more environmentally friendly than buying a new one. It will also save the user some money. I like their philosophy. If writing a story about the repairability of an old Mackintosh machine gets them some publicity then I'm for it.

    The best thing we can do for the environment is to convince people to use their hardware until it is no longer viable. Viability usually goes out the window with a software update. Thankfully this has not been a significant problem with Mac OS updates though app updates can cause problems. For me the real ugliness of technology comes from people that have to have the absolute latest of everything Apple makes. Sad really.
  • Reply 22 of 27
    My first Mac was the 512k, in 1986 (it was a run out model) I loved the Mac so much back then that I got a job as an Apple bench technician about 3-4 years later. I got to work on the Lisa, the original Mac, Mac XL and it was a wonderful experience. It's a real shame that Apple did not nail the corporate market like Microsoft did, but that's life. Any company who are willing to take chances like Apple have done are bound to make mistakes. I think Apple have done very well in the market now, despite being the only "non-microsoft OS" platform.
  • Reply 23 of 27
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jm6032 View Post

     

    I don't know if this carried over to the Mac, but if I remember correctly, in the Apple II the clocking of data onto the magnetic media was controlled by the CPU itself, thus if you changed the clock frequency that would change the size of the bits on the magnetic media. Any one Mac should have been able to read it's own floppy, but I don't know if you could take that floppy to another Mac.


    yep it did, it was the down side of the macs for a long time, Woz came up with this design and it care through most all the mac, there was no separate controller for the floppy drive, however, if you used a HDD it was not an issue.

  • Reply 24 of 27
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Sacto Joe View Post



    Somewhere in my storage I have one of those. Bought in 1984, it was my first computer. I've been Apple ever since. One thing that seems strange is that theirs doesn't show signs of the signatures cast into the inside of the shell. Per Wikipedia: "The original Macintosh was unusual in that it included the signatures of the Macintosh Division as of early 1982 molded on the inside of the case."



    Mine has those.

    The signatures are featured in the video.

  • Reply 25 of 27
    Great article. But it depressed me to see the aged-to-mustard tone of the case. Makes it seem like an exhumation autopsy instead of a tear down of a good product. Part of its original appeal was the perky contemporary office look, not the grandma's bathroom vanity tone shown here.

    See it in approximate original livery here:
    https://plus.google.com/photos/100575434677357573067/albums/5973228479301784849/5973228487711776914?banner=pwa&pid=5973228487711776914&oid=100575434677357573067

    I had one of the original 128k's, but a tech friend quickly upgraded it to 256k by soldering another RAM chip, piggyback, on the original.
  • Reply 26 of 27
    arlorarlor Posts: 532member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by duckpond49 View Post



    Great article. But it depressed me to see the aged-to-mustard tone of the case. Makes it seem like an exhumation autopsy instead of a tear down of a good product. Part of its original appeal was the perky contemporary office look, not the grandma's bathroom vanity tone shown here.



    See it in approximate original livery here:

    https://plus.google.com/photos/100575434677357573067/albums/5973228479301784849/5973228487711776914?banner=pwa&pid=5973228487711776914&oid=100575434677357573067



    I had one of the original 128k's, but a tech friend quickly upgraded it to 256k by soldering another RAM chip, piggyback, on the original.

     

    Yeah, my II+ discolored in the same way in just a few years. The IIGS stayed pretty for the six years I had it, so I guess the problem was solved by '86 or so.

  • Reply 27 of 27
    ssquirrelssquirrel Posts: 1,196member
    I love them giving a ding for possible electric shock from the monitor. It's a CRT. What the hell do they expect? If you don't know what you're doing and you open up an old CRT TV, you are asking for trouble too. Things like CRTs hold significant charge after being unplugged. Just the nature of the beast. I'm surprised they gave it a 7/10 as the Mac was intended to be a pretty closed system.
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