We're All Mac Users Now

Wired News ^ | January 6, 2004 | Leander Kahney

[jaz.357]

Remember the "TIMEX - SINCLAIR"? I have two of them. One still in the box! http://oldcomputers.net/ts1000.html

[Question_Assumptions]

Mac took technology from Xerox.

Steve Jobs was given a tour of PARC by Xerox with no strings attached and they showed him three important cutting-edge things -- the GUI and mouse, networking and messaging, and object oriented programming. Jobs paid the most attention to the GUI and mouse and had the Lisa and then Mac build on GUI concepts. Jobs has since said that he should also have paid more attention to the other two. That said, Xerox did very little with their technology, preferring to make photocopiers, instead. Apple did a lot of research into their version of the GUI, made the rough concept much more commercially viable, and did a lot of really creative things with their applications such as MacPaint and MacWrite. So it isn't as if Apple pushed Xerox out of a market it was doing anything useful with. PARC was a long series of wasted opportunities for Xerox.

BTW, the Amiga was a better computer than the Mac will ever be.

Have you used an Amiga or Mac lately? Did you ever wonder why the Amiga wasn't able to hold on to the 3D graphics market?

[Question_Assumptions]

God willing... better compatibility, software and price issues will let us all really go back to Mac.

The price issue is already largely gone. All Apple really needs is a $500 entry-level Mac and they'd have their bases covered. Compatibility isn't a major issue with many software packages (I use MS Office, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Canvas, and Carrara on my Mac and all have Mac and PC versions and can exchange files). The only major software category where Macs are really lacking is games. OK, Macs are also lacking huge discount bins of bad software that can't even sell for $10, but I don't think that counts.

[jmcclain19]

my first computer was still my favorite....

[Question_Assumptions]

The MAC was not the first window / mouse oriented Apple Computer. The LISA, which was a far more expensive and capable machine was released first. It never made real inroads into the marketplace because of its high price, but it had a superset of the MAC's functionality. When Steve Jobs created the MAC, all he did was scale down the LISA and reduce its price accordingly.

Actually, they purposely crippled the first Macs in an attempt to make them difficult, if not impossible, to expand. I remember the amazement at the first internal hard drives added to Macs, a feat that Apple thought would be impossible. Those 400k multi-speed floppies were interesting. The Mac was originally designed for 400k 5-1/2" floppies. When they switched over to 3-1/2" floppies, they had to use variable speed drives to fit the same 400k on them.

[Question_Assumptions]

Apple may have taken the GUI idea from Xerox but Xerox never released their PARC machines to the commercial market. This article is talking about the commercial release of the Mac. The Xerox machines were never used outside of PARC as far as I know.

[Diogenesis]

Yes. They were advertised in Amiga mags from the UK at that time.

[Diogenesis]

I use an Amiga to collect data on occasion.
It is more stable than the PC.

[Joe Bonforte]

The Xerox machines were never used outside of PARC as far as I know.

Xerox did put out a machine with some of those capabilities called the Star, put out almost two years before the Lisa. Bit-mapped screen, mouse, networking built-in, etc. But it was targeted at office automation instead of the general market, and was very expensive. Went nowhere, as was typical of Xerox efforts in computing.

You can get more info about it here.

[cmsgop]

Proud Mac Owner since '97 never called Tech Support Once, and I'm Dumb as Rocks.......

[capt. norm]

" BTW, the Amiga was a better computer than the Mac will ever be."

Roger on that statement. Loved the Amiga, big time.

I'm not sure what Commodore did wrong but it sure blew them off the map.

When I get home I'm going to raid the closet and get the Amiga out and 'go back in time' for an hour or so tonight.

[Diogenesis]

Get the Cloanto software from Italy online,
then emulate a 68040 chip on your PC at present PC speeds.

With the cable to the Amiga, you will run much of your Amiga software right on the PC,
and then transfer your old files to CDs.

[MarkL]

the best thing about a Windowing OS is that you can have LOTS of command prompt windows open at the same time!

Mark

[mc5cents]

Ah, those oldies but goldies... my favorite oldie was the old 64.

[pgobrien]

I was recording multi Track Audio on my Amiga in Stereo, with 16 million color, when IBM's were still black and white display and a 1" speaker.
Sigh..... Commodore....snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[zarf]

Todd Rundgren swore by them....So I HAD to as well :)

[Diogenesis]

So true. I fondly remember having a program with just a single file (+maybe a new lib file)
But, like germanium chips, another good idea went the way of the floppy disk
into the dust-bin of history.

[Viking2002]

I have an old PowerMac 6100, and I have to admit that it's loads of fun sometimes. My wife loves it.

[zarf]

The most famouse Amiga user of them all...TODD!!

[Will_Zurmacht]

LOAD "$" ,8,1
man those were the days...my Commodores were awsome. Hours spent peekin and pokin around.

I think the 80's were probably the best time for young dorks to be alive. Our tech was crap but man how we learned and it was fun. I think the Jr. high geek club today have it far too good....dang kids today with their iPods, internet, and naughty web pages....huruumph!

I couldn't afford an Apple for years though. I still think this is one of their big errors. They made a computer for everybody......everybody who had a few thousand bucks to burn (in 1988 dollars).
I don't know what they could have done different, licence the OS, sell low end macs, etc. still, those were the days.

(proudly posted from a "classic" G3/OS 9.1)