Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple
25 Years of Macintosh in photos
A quarter of a century has passed since the Macintosh was first unveiled, and we're happy to celebrate the silver anniversary of the computer for the rest of us. Here's a look at some of Apple's hits and misses when it comes to the venerable platform.
For a contemporary perspective, check out this story from the April, 1984 issue of Compute! magazine, where associate editor Fred D'Ignazio writes of the January 30 "coming out party" for the Mac at the Boston Computer Society.
When was the first time you heard of the Mac? Our team will be sharing their reminiscences later today.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John Russell said 12:54AM on 1-24-2009
This is why I love my birthday.
Reply
Bones3D said 1:23AM on 1-24-2009
Amazing how quickly things have advanced over the years for the platform. Only a few short years ago, I was amazed by the fact that I could actually install and run System 7 on a mere sharp zaurus handheld.
- http://www.bones3d.com/think/zmac.jpg
Nowadays, I have an iPod Touch, which is both far more powerful and much more aesthetically pleasing to look at, yet it still seems somewhat less amazing than System 7 did on the zaurus.
Perhaps it has something to do with Apple's methods of policing iPhone/iPod Touch platform that somehow makes it feel less flexible than the inviting view of a freshly booted System 7 desktop.
Reply
macsruletheworld said 6:42PM on 1-25-2009
oh hi. stumbleupon works in mysterious ways.
ijohnjones said 1:33AM on 1-24-2009
Here is to 25 more!
Reply
vofavideo said 1:37AM on 1-24-2009
I still have a desktop Macintosh Performa from 1994 that still runs.... y2k never broke it... and it had a CD drive... thats quality...
and to this day I still only use apple. I have my iphone, my ipod touch, my 24"iMac and my MacBook.
Reply
iRyan said 1:50AM on 1-24-2009
Happy Birthday Macintosh, The first 25 years have been amazing, wonder what the next 25 years will bring
Reply
Boyo said 2:59AM on 1-24-2009
The TAM rocks, lets hope we get a TFAM!
Reply
austin said 8:06PM on 1-24-2009
too late for that. the TAM was celebrating the 20th anniversary of apple, not mac. the 25th anniversary of apple has already passed.
Boyo said 9:23PM on 1-24-2009
Sure but I can still hope, after all the M does stand for Mac.
Niklas said 4:50AM on 1-24-2009
The slide show is not working on iPhones.
Reply
oliver hart said 5:54AM on 1-24-2009
Ditto. I thought you guys catered to the Mac crowd? While the slideshow won't play on my iPhone, it goes smooth on my old htc shitphone. Well done
Jash Sayani said 5:27AM on 1-24-2009
Steve looked so different !
Reply
scarlco said 8:29AM on 1-24-2009
Wasn't the G5 an IBM processor? The slideshow states Motorola. I thought Apple dropped Moto with the PowerPC line.
Reply
oakie said 10:15AM on 1-24-2009
you have all the right words and names, but jumbled it all up.
PowerPC was developed from the AIM alliance... Apple IBM Motorola. all 3 are responsible for the PowerPC's RISC architecture.
as for the G5 series, these were more IBM than anything, as they were derived from IBM's server processors that were readapted for desktop use... but those server processors were based on the PowerPC architecture developed by the three companies. most of the early chips were cut by Freescale i.e. Motorola, but the G4 and G5 chips were all pumped out of IBM's foundries.
but to lend an air of consistency to the Apple story, it's a little more dramatic to say "the last of the Motorolas" because for one, it's true, and for two, the drama is because Motorola had been their chip provider since the very beginning.
Can Berk Güder said 8:31AM on 1-24-2009
Here's one from me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbguder/3221806379/
Reply
Spinfusor said 8:31AM on 1-24-2009
One of the captions is incorrect. The G5 was made by IBM, not Motorola.
No. 8 "Apple's last big PowerPC-based tower saw G5's from Motorola jammed inside."
Reply
Howard Jeffrey said 8:51AM on 1-24-2009
Wow. I've owned a bunch of those machines. I was using Macs before the SE30. I had a Mac that used two floppy drives (one for system/app and the other for docs), then a Classic, a Quadra, a Performa, an Imac, an Ibook G4 and now a MacBook 2 ghz. There was one Windows machine in there during the Steve-limbo years. It sucked. It died the blue screen of death motherboard failure after three years. Figures. Long live MAC
Reply
juan said 1:35PM on 1-24-2009
you can see the retro videoreview of the mac in
http://www.clipset.net/2009/01/23/retro-videorama-apple-macintosh/
LOL
Reply
John South said 4:49AM on 1-26-2009
I loved Lisa!!
Reply
Eric said 2:12PM on 1-24-2009
I had a Macintosh SE (I don't think it was the SE/30, but I could be wrong)... today I have a blueberry iMac and a MacBook Pro.
I'd buy another SE if I could find it cheap enough.
Reply