25th Anniversary of the Apple Mac

by Jordan Yerman | January 24, 2009 at 09:45 am

751 views | 20 Recommendations | 10 comments

Happy 25th Anniversary, Mac! You've come a long way, baby. Formerly a fringe product (In university, I knew only two Mac users, One of whose was stolen after a few months), Apple's market share is flirting with ten percent, which was unthinkable even three years ago.

Twenty-five years ago, Apple Computers introduced the MacIntosh 128k, featuring the Graphical User Interface (GUI). (And let's be honest: both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates pretty much cribbed it from Xerox)

Users would navigate the brave new world with the trusty single-button mouse, which looked more like K-9 than an actual rodent. The case: beige. The screen: monochrome. The case? Integrated with the screen.

A lot has happened between then and now... Is there any direct connection left between Macs of yore and today's Intel-driven machines, all but indistinguishable under the hood from a PC? in the interviews quoted below, both respondents obviously want to say "yes", but cannot do so without some heavy qualifications. The case, in my opinion, does not count: a Mac would still function as a Mac even if the log board and components were mounted inside a microwave oven.

"Recently, I had a chance to go back and use the old Mac," Cohen said. "The essential consistency was still the same. You could take a Mac user who has been on ice for the last quarter century and put them on a modern Mac, and they'd be up and using it within a matter of moments."

Having had to train new users migrating from OS9 to newer versions of OSX, I must take issue with this... It's easy, sure, but "a matter of moments" is optimistic at best. They had a tough enough time with the search tool in the upper right of the OSX screen- their heads would explode if you showed 'em Spaces. But enough about that- remember the Susan-Powter-meets-1984 Mac ad from back in the day?

Directed by Ridley Scott not long after Blade Runner, "1984" aired on January 22, 1984, and its narrative is now geek canon. Scores of blank-faced people are fixated on a broadcast of a Big Brother figure on a giant television screen, until a woman in bright athletic apparel sprints down a center aisle, wielding a hammer. She hurls it at the screen, which explodes into a bright white light.

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Paschen

at 09:48 on January 24th, 2009

One whole Generation already. It is amazing.

Jordan Yerman

at 12:15 on January 24th, 2009

One thing that hasn't changed: to eject a disk from Mac OS, you drag it into the trash. Non-intuitive? Absolutely, but that element of the GUI has been totally consistent. At least now the bin changes into that little eject-y arrow thingie, instead of causing the user (i.e. me) to think he just binned his disk.

Oh, and also having separate formatted disks for Mac and PC in those pre-DVD days. Flash drives? Science fiction!

My Mac disk was called MACaque. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Paschen

at 12:22 on January 24th, 2009

You know I never though of that, nor paid attention to it until now that you mentioned it.

René

at 12:35 on January 24th, 2009

It's not that hard. What's more interesting is how the value of the Microsoft vs Apple stocks have switched.

Type 17

at 13:46 on January 24th, 2009

The original motherboard of the the first Macintosh from 1984. (first launched with 128k of RAM, this is a 512k version from later on in 1984). photo by Stephen Wallis.

Type 17 has contributed a photo to this story.

crazyshin

at 14:39 on January 24th, 2009

I love the early Macintosh.
After collecting the product of the time, has become so much a mouse.
But the mouse is not the same one which is slightly different from everyone.

crazyshin has contributed a photo to this story.

auggie tolosa

at 16:15 on January 24th, 2009

auggie tolosa has contributed a photo to this story.

slomacuser

at 00:29 on January 25th, 2009

128k Mac in a bag!

slomacuser has contributed a photo to this story.

erichews

at 10:31 on January 27th, 2009

Happy Birthday Mac! Here's a cool homage a friend of mine made: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patlejch/3221344508/

You should contact him about adding it to the images here.

leonbrooks

at 07:13 on January 28th, 2009

I remember seeing a Mac in 1985 for the first time, at Drexel University's School of Information Studies. Then I owned an Apple IIc. I didn't really get into Mac's until 1987 when a friend showed me what he could do with his. Right after that I equipped my office with a Mac II and staff with Mac SE's.