Comments on: History of Mac OS

By: Historia de MacOS « Paroscar Weblog

Historia de MacOS « Paroscar Weblog — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:38:57 +0000

[...] artículo ha sido preparado con información de Apple Computer de WikiPedia y traducción de History of Mac OS de A Mac Genius, traducido por Danny [...]

By: Jim Bob

Jim Bob — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:42:07 +0000

Somewhere around system 7.x the internet hit and system 7 really collapsed. I remember trying to configure a bunch of mac systems to to do TCP/IP — maybe 7.1 or 7.5 — it was a nightmare.

I think this was one of those ‘almost killed the mac’ days. Apple was very slow to realize that TCP/IP wasn’t going away, and that AppleTalk was a problem — not a feature. (Despite many good aspects to AppleTalk, only now being resurrected via Bonjour.)

I have a few Quadras and it wasn’t a problem for me getting them connected. I think they originally had 7.5.1 or 7.5.3 installed. I have 7.6.1 on them now. I only had to get AAUI dongles for them and connect them to my router with a CAT3/5 cable. No problems and no configuring involved.

By: Maccess

Maccess — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:22:49 +0000

Somewhere around system 7.x the internet hit and system 7 really collapsed. I remember trying to configure a bunch of mac systems to to do TCP/IP — maybe 7.1 or 7.5 — it was a nightmare.

I think this was one of those ‘almost killed the mac’ days. Apple was very slow to realize that TCP/IP wasn’t going away, and that AppleTalk was a problem — not a feature. (Despite many good aspects to AppleTalk, only now being resurrected via Bonjour.)

Hmmm, it’s really easy to configure a Mac to run TCP/IP on System 7 nowadays.

I still have a couple of Quadras running 7.1.2 (the best pre 7.5 version. Don’t look for it, it wasn’t sold retail, it was shipped with early units of the Quadra 630) and 7.5.5.

It’s easy to get these OSs running the Internet today because there are lots of stable patches to stick into the System–produced as recently as 2000!

Back in 1995 we had frequent Type 11 errors and we made do with little RAM because RAM was so expensive. Any pre-G3 mac (except for some SE/30s with 20 and 32MB) I still have around has maximum RAM, acquired mostly free.

By: John Faughnan

John Faughnan — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:13:56 +0000

Somewhere around system 7.x the internet hit and system 7 really collapsed. I remember trying to configure a bunch of mac systems to to do TCP/IP — maybe 7.1 or 7.5 — it was a nightmare.

I think this was one of those ‘almost killed the mac’ days. Apple was very slow to realize that TCP/IP wasn’t going away, and that AppleTalk was a problem — not a feature. (Despite many good aspects to AppleTalk, only now being resurrected via Bonjour.)

By: Mario da Silva

Mario da Silva — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:21:04 +0000

Thanks! Very informative article. I’m glad to have found this article, as a newbie to MAC OS’s. Are there any more articles on which Mac OS is the best for a G4 350Mhz PCI Graphics? My tower came with a Chinese OS 8.something! Keep up the good writing! :>

Mario from Hongkong.

By: James

James — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:07:28 +0000

Now tell us about AU/X the Macintosh interface glued to UNIX…

I refer to Mac OS X as Mac OpenStep X because I have used Macintosh for many years and Mac OS X is not Macintosh.

By: Finally, A detailed history of the Mac OS at Appleology

Finally, A detailed history of the Mac OS at Appleology — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:21:51 +0000

[...] But, I have yet to see an online resource of each version of Apple’s OS, until today. History of Mac OS is a great and informative article of the versions of System and Mac OS. So, if you are interested, go to amacgenius.com and read about the history of our favorite OS. // Used for showing and hiding user information in the comment form function ShowUtils() { document.getElementById(”authorinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(”showinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(”hideinfo”).style.display = “”; } function HideUtils() { document.getElementById(”authorinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(”showinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(”hideinfo”).style.display = “none”; } [...]

By: Inside Stretch

Inside Stretch — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 20:30:03 +0000

[...] Ever wonder the history of all of Apple’s operating systems? Now is your chance to read about each one. The Mac OS was not the first graphical user interface, but it was the first successful one. The reason for this is simple: affordability. The Xerox Alto cost $32,000 to build, the Xerox Star retailed for $16,600, and the Apple Lisa retailed for $10,000. The first Macintosh, on the other hand, retailed for $2,500. Because it was affordable by average people, it was immediately much more attractive than the GUI computers that came before it. [...]

By: e30mpower

e30mpower — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:53:09 +0000

It might also be worth mentioning that Mac OS 9.1 was the last version ever to officially support pre-G3 hardware. All subsequent releases require a G3 or better (excluding the original PowerBook G3, which got shafted).

By: Wry Cooter

Wry Cooter — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:12:29 +0000

My Mac Plus may have shipped with a subversion in the threes, 3, but there was definately a System 5.03, the one I remember the most when other mac users were concerned about the requirements for System 6 (multifinder).

Of course to some degree back then Finder WAS the OS.

Perhaps the original poster meant 5.0 was never a consumer release. Just as many people never saw System 7.0, they saw System 7.0.1 or 7.1.

Whatever the case, that ‘fact’ of them skipping System 5 totally trashes any reliability this article may have, my Mac Plus was in System 5 most of its usable life.

And actually, before system 7, the most common way a mac owner got a new version of the OS, was by buying a new mac that required that version. The local dealer may have installation floppies to loan or give you if you wanted to upgrade, but there was little reason to. Multifinder, OS 6, was probably the first reason to upgrade a mac OS for its intrinsic features.

By: Stripes

Stripes — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 18:56:30 +0000

The Mac GUI existed before the Mac itself. The GS OS was a full colored desktop [...]

The Apple IIGS came after the Mac. The Mac came out in 1984, the IIgs came out in 1987. I remember the Mac’s release because of the famous 1984 commercial. I remember the IIgs because I graduated from high school that year. I also recently (well last year) talked to someone who had been on the IIgs project at Apple, I had wondered why they bothered when the Mac was already out. Apparently at that time the Apple II line will still bringing in way way more money then the Mac line so it seemed like a really good idea.

By: Tom Lee

Tom Lee — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 22:33:44 +0000

Actually, System 5 was not simply a codename used internally. It was, no foolin’, released to the public that way. I have a lovely new-in-box from Apple with “System 5″ written all over it. It was, in fact, the very first move by Apple to rationalize the confusing differing system/finder versions. Prior to this, there really was no such thing as “System 3,” for example.

By: Link Blog » History of Mac OS

Link Blog » History of Mac OS — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 16:09:44 +0000

[...] Read the article here. [...]

By: Chef-Blog » Eine kurze Geschichte von Mac OS

Chef-Blog » Eine kurze Geschichte von Mac OS — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 09:38:09 +0000

[...] Interessanter Lesestoff f?ɬ�r alle mac-Fans: Der Betreiber des Blogs amacgenius.com hat die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Mac OS vom System 1 bis zum aktuellen Tiger zusammengestellt. [...]

By: El Payo

El Payo — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 03:55:08 +0000

What about System 7 Pro - some of us were dumb enough to shell out for the advanced features like PowerTalk and QuickDraw GX- remember that?

By: skoker

skoker — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 20:33:50 +0000

[Comment ID #447 Will Be Quoted Here]

Very true, I actually owned and used a GS for years. However, this article was on the history of the Mac OS, and the ][ GS OS was not technically a ‘Macintosh OS’

By: Extra Character

Extra Character — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:51:11 +0000

The Mac GUI existed before the Mac itself. The GS OS was a full colored desktop so powerful and user friendly that I waited until the Mac II to replace it.

By: skoker

skoker — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 12:36:07 +0000

Hey all–

I hope you all liked my article. Thanks to amacgenius for choosing me as the contest winner too

To those of you who had concerns about system 5:

Indeed, there was no ‘true’ system software called ‘System 5′, but instead a release that had SSW 4.x and included Finder 6, along with other releases of other software. Technically, this was system 4.x, however many people used a ‘codename’ of System 5 to refer to ths release.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 10:14:15 +0000

I could dig out some old floppies that say System 5 was not skipped.
The author obviously got his info 3rd hand and probably got confused because prior to System 6 (or it might of even been 5, I don’t remember exactly) the System and Finder would have different version numbers and were sort of independent of each other.

By: Srinivas Ivaturi

Srinivas Ivaturi — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:42:23 +0000

Wikipedia is not updated with latest updates :-).

By: justAMan

justAMan — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:29:56 +0000

According to Wikipedia, System 5 wasn’t skipped:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_history#System_5

By: Tom Lynch

Tom Lynch — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:03:42 +0000

Brilliant read, nice to listen to perhapse you could add logos of the OS and screens?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:08:29 +0000

Dammit. I was going to write an article. Stupid sports.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 02:24:10 +0000

Hey, not a bad article. I learned some stuff. It could use just a tiny bit of editing, though - towards the end you switch to the present tense, and the Panther and Tiger sections read like reviews, not facts. Overall, though, very informative and well-written!

By: webmacster87

webmacster87 — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:43:33 +0000

*clears throat* Great job, skoker, very interesting article!

NOTE TO SELF: Next time, instead of an article on the Hurricane Season, I’ll do one on how to close the lid of a laptop.