Another hello from a long time fan of antix, using the forum for the first time

[Member lubod]

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@masinick

All models before the Mac Plus, save one, had floppies only, no internal hard drive and no SCSI port for an external one. That is the original 128K, the 512K, and the 512Ke. Apple engineers made a Hard Disk SC, which was connected through the serial port, but you need a special boot floppy with drivers, so you had to boot from floppy, and the hard drive was mainly for applications and data. The exception was the Mac XL, a rebranded Lisa with a huge 10Mb HD and Mac OS emulation, because while the Mac and Lisa share CPU and many other parts, the Lisa lacks the Mac Toolbox in ROM, which is critical to run MacOS. The Plus also had no internal HD, that arrived with the second revision SE (not SE/30 that was later), but it had room for 4Mb RAM and a SCSI port!

Very complete reference, for all Macs up to today: (This is the section for the oldest models, but there are links to the rest)
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/index-vintage-classic-macs.html

I’m thinking when you say portable maybe it was one of those. It had everything but keyboard and mouse in the case, monitor, motherboard, power supply, floppy. And the case had a built in handle, was compact, and was a featherweight at 16 lbs. Remember how much bigger and heavier other computers of similar vintage were?

Yes, you are remembering OS X 1.0, aka Rhapsody, which is indeed derived from NeXTStep/OpenStep. I used both Macs and NeXTs then, so know lots about how they are related.
http://rhapsodyos.org/
Where Rhapsody ends, OS X 10.0 begins.
Yes, when I installed 10.0, so it would crash less, most of the day to day software (Word, Photoshop, almost everything) still required OS 9. It took Adobe 2 years after the release of OS X to make Photoshop Carbon. Not OS X native, that took another 5, Carbon was a OS 9 and X backwards compatible API, so it could run in either, and no longer required OS 9! And they had insider builds at least a year before it was sold. Lazy bums.

There was a PowerPC Mac server (so Apple hardware) that ran only IBM AIX, no Mac OS:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/network_server/index-network-server.html

The Lisa was designed in house at Apple, by engineers Jobs hired from Xerox (today they say poached, he offered them more pay, benefits, or more exciting projects than Xerox). He also signed a deal with Xerox to buy the intelectual property, the ideas they invented but did not sell to the mass market, so he was free to do so himself with no threat of lawsuits. If anyone says Microsoft was justified to steal the Mac OS look and feel, which they had insider knowledge of before it shipped, because most of the early programming language packages published for the Mac, like basic, are theirs, and they demanded and got prerelease copies of the OS with source code (something John Sculley lived to regret!) and make the pale imitation Windows 1.0, because Apple stole from Xerox simply doesn’t have a clue, or is a Microsoft apologist writing revisionist history.

Here is windows 1.01:
https://www.pcjs.org/disks/pcx86/windows/1.01/

Not exactly good, considering they stole the concept of a GUI that looked better, and mangled it.
https://www.pcjs.org/disks/pcx86/windows/1.01/

Yes, anything Macintosh up to at least 2007, and NeXT, how to emulate them on modern OSes, plus large chunks of the history of Sun, SGI, even DEC to a lesser extent, I know, even if it happened decades before I used computers. Back to the original AT&T Unix, Kernighan and Ritchie, the first version of C, etc.

Brian Masinick wrote:

Sometime between 1982 and 1983 I was working in a group that was assessing new technology. I got my hands on many different brands of personal computer systems, small tower shaped servers, etc.

I can’t remember if I actually used a Lisa or not, but I did use at least one Mac portable and I distinctly remember that the model I used at the time didn’t get a hard drive so I would start it up using removable media.

Later I used an Apple Mac server and I ran an early version of what is now MacOS. If I remember correctly this system used a derivative of Steven Job’s “Next” computer software, one of the earliest and best graphical user interfaces available at that time.

Unfortunately the systems I was using were not very powerful so the GUI really slowed down the system and there really were not enough tools and applications yet to justify the system. Still, this stuff was cutting edge and in only a few years everyone was imitating it.

Without a doubt the IBM systems, whether the PC models or the servers, were clearly better built than the other small systems, but early IBM systems were not very fast. IBM was a bit late getting into the small systems space and even purchased both the initial hardware (Intel) and the initial software (Microsoft) before later building their own.

Same with their servers. The small ones were not particularly quick but they were the very first to bring improved security. I remember the original UNIX creators commenting that they didn’t build good security into their first design. IBM played an important role in the improvement of software security and actually helped bring Enterprise system security to the Linux kernel as well.

I’m much more appreciative of the contribution from IBM and other large system builders than I was early in my career. I used to consider their systems old and slow. A more mature comment is that the overhead their systems contain is a result of mature, well designed, developed and tested hardware and software. Such things may not be essential for all hobbyists, but they are crucial for any business that wants to protect it’s assets.

As for the Apple Lisa, it was a n excellent prototype. I believe it comes from Xerox technology that Apple licensed from Xerox.

Even though Xerox was never successful in marketing computer systems themselves, they invented a lot of the technology used in most modern systems today. AT&T, IBM, Xerox, General Electric, and Honeywell were the large companies that used to invent and patent a lot of ideas. Today the big companies buy the patent rights and license them to others but create a very small fraction of the patent inventions in their own labs, a major change in the way things happen, and perhaps a good thing. Individual ideas and inventions are always a good idea, even if it’s the big companies taking ownership. Individual people who want to keep their ideas still have the choice to do so.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by lubod.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by lubod.

Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.

Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gb

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I must have seen the Mac the final year I was in that group. I think that my office partner was testing it and I was able to get a hold of it and try it.

The PCs were first, and I worked on the tower UNIX servers right up until I joined Digital in 1985 and worked in an engineering group that supported technical sales to the Telco industry right after the AT&T and Bell operating company split.

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Brian Masinick

[Member lubod]

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Thank you sir. Respect, where respect is earned, and is due (You earned it multiple times). 🙂 I am from LA, CA so if you so wish, I will come to visit. 🙂 Y’all. Via Con Dios. I dance tango. and speak appprox. 6 European languages. For which I will not apologize. Sorry. Feel the sarcasm?

Brian Masinick wrote:

I must have seen the Mac the final year I was in that group. I think that my office partner was testing it and I was able to get a hold of it and try it.

The PCs were first, and I worked on the tower UNIX servers right up until I joined Digital in 1985 and worked in an engineering group that supported technical sales to the Telco industry right after the AT&T and Bell operating company split.

Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.

Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gb

[Member PPC]

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lubod wrote:

Thanks. I know some people feel using old equipment is wasteful, simply because it uses more electricity, and so on. Mostly true, with exceptions. Many Pentium 3 systems are more efficient than Pentium 4. But if the choice is no computer (for example because a newer one broke or you can’t buy it new) or an older one, I would take older anytime. I’m guessing like @PPC, your nickname is derived from the Macintosh? My mom’s first computer, and therefore mine as well, was a Plus, but several friends had the 512Ke or regular 512K, and one even had the original 128K! Never saw a Lisa in action, they retailed for $9999 back then!

As an aside, I don’t want to make this thread infinitely long, so new posters, please try what I suggested to @masinick above:
Perhaps send me a private message, and we can chat that way, or exchange email.

fatmac wrote:

Welcome aboard – it’s good to see people still able to be using old equipment./>

Sorry for the late reply: no, I never owned a mac in my life! My forum nickname is just my initials 🙂
I used Mac’s only a couple of times. They seem very efficient machines, but current models are over priced, in my humble opinion.
I do own a single core atom netbook with 1 gig of shared RAM, and believe it or not never had a problem with it since I began using antiX. I can even use it to watch hd movies ( full hd movies do not play so smoothly) and I can even watch crafts 720 dpi youtube videos in the browser with my baby girl! Office work runs almost as smooth on my antiX crappy netbook as it does on my wife’s newer desktop computer, with a ssd and windows 10… As long as my computers keep working, they run with antiX or MX linux.

P.

Edit: I just noticed the forum shows 2 giant smilies. I found it so funny I didn’t even edited those out!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PPC.

[Member lubod]

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@PPC

No worries mate. Your nick is your own, gottes helf. Live long and prosper. Current Macs are way overpriced, (says a true RDF believer!). LAst years Intel CPU and chipset, for 4 times the price. And the Micro and soft licence fee, no thanks. The last good Mac OS was 10.6. Cook is an accountant, he orders iPad 3, but he can’t create anything! Let him rot in hell. People hate Jobs, because he was mean. But he created the iPod, iPhone, iMac. Let Cook make one thing as JObs did. He can’t, he is der dumkopf okonomist.

PPC wrote:

lubod wrote:

Thanks. I know some people feel using old equipment is wasteful, simply because it uses more electricity, and so on. Mostly true, with exceptions. Many Pentium 3 systems are more efficient than Pentium 4. But if the choice is no computer (for example because a newer one broke or you can’t buy it new) or an older one, I would take older anytime. I’m guessing like @PPC, your nickname is derived from the Macintosh? My mom’s first computer, and therefore mine as well, was a Plus, but several friends had the 512Ke or regular 512K, and one even had the original 128K! Never saw a Lisa in action, they retailed for $9999 back then!

As an aside, I don’t want to make this thread infinitely long, so new posters, please try what I suggested to @masinick above:
Perhaps send me a private message, and we can chat that way, or exchange email.

fatmac wrote:

Welcome aboard – it’s good to see people still able to be using old equipment./>

Sorry for the late reply: no, I never owned a mac in my life! My forum nickname is just my initials
I used Mac’s only a couple of times. They seem very efficient machines, but current models are over priced, in my humble opinion.
I do own a single core atom netbook with 1 gig of shared RAM, and believe it or not never had a problem with it since I began using antiX. I can even use it to watch hd movies ( full hd movies do not play so smoothly) and I can even watch crafts 720 dpi youtube videos in the browser with my baby girl! Office work runs almost as smooth on my antiX crappy netbook as it does on my wife’s newer desktop computer, with a ssd and windows 10… As long as my computers keep working, they run with antiX or MX linux.

P.

Edit: I just noticed the forum shows 2 giant smilies. I found it so funny I didn’t even edited those out!

Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.

Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gb

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