Macintosh History 101

Chances are that, by the time you are reading this, Steve Jobs has already finished his keynote at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2008, announcing shiny new Apple products. As a little counterweight to the springflood of news messages this will most definitely cause, I thought you might enjoy a little walk down memory lane to rediscover how it all began, and which milestones it took Apple and the Macintosh to get to where they are today.

The beginning of (Macintosh) time

Andy Hertzfeld, who worked on the first-ever Macintosh as a software developer, has compiled countless anecdotes from the early days of the Mac on his Web site folklore.org. Contributed by Hertzfeld and other members of the original Macintosh team, these stories provide a first-hand account of how the Mac was turned from idea to product.

The really interesting thing about folklore.org is that you get a direct glimpse at the diverse personalities of the people involved (Steve Jobs included? You bet!) and how their interaction influenced the way the Mac was designed and built.

For every anecdote, Hertzfeld's site lists and hyper-links its author, original date (i.e., when that story actually happened), the characters involved, a quick topic tag like "Hardware Design," "Technical," or -- one of my favorites -- "Personality Clashes", and a short summary.

A choice selection of these stories is also available in book form by O'Reilly, titled "Revolution in the Valley."

Museums on the 'Net

For those of you who are more interested in the technical side of things, the following two virtual museums on the 'Net are just what the doctor ordered.

Apple History has a complete list of all Apple machines ever released, starting with the Apple I. For each model, the site has tons of technical specs and the occasional bit of background info. To round things off, there's also a concise overview over the company history.

A similar list of Apple's computers was also available from The Apple Museum. Yup, was, because, unfortunately, the entire database was lost a while ago. (I'm afraid that's another sad entry in the "25,398 Reasons Why Backups Are a Good Thing"...) Still, while work is performed on rebuilding the database, there's plenty of good stuff about Apple that makes visiting that site worth your while: apart from a very nicely presented company history and a handy list of codenames for Apple products, pages on Apple Facts -- e.g., about the origins of the company name and logo -- and Prototype machines provide a wealth of background information in one place that any Apple-fan will enjoy reading.

Mac tech specs to go

If all you need are plain, down-to-the-bone technical details, download the MacTracker application to your Mac (versions for Windows and even iPhone and iPod are also available!): it's a self-contained database that contains all the gory specification details you ever wanted to know about your favorite computers.

Tune in to Macintosh history

Interested in the history of the Mac and have a longer commute? In that case, do check out the RetroMacCast podcast. Presented by long-time Apple afficionados James (Savage) & John (Leake) in a highly enjoyable leasurely, lazy-Sunday-afternoon style, each weekly episode, number 50 of which was published last December -- congratulations! --, headlines the Retro Mac of the Week; puts the focus on a Collection Spotlight that also includes some of the more obscure products like the Apple Pippin gaming console; points out the eBay Find of the Week; presents interviews with other Mac collectors; and has some current Apple-related news thrown in for good measure.

The RetroMacCast is packaged as an enhanced podcast, so you can easily navigate its chapters and see a few choice pictures for each chapter when played in iTunes or on an iPod. Higher-resolution images are also available on RetroMacCast's Flickr page, which, thanks to James's stunning collection of Macs, is thoroughly worth visiting in its own right.

Virtually hands-on with a classic Mac

How long have you, valued reader, been using a Mac? Have you ever used a pre-Mac OS X machine? If not, you should head over to Andrea Grell's My Old Macintosh, a Flash-based "emulation" of a Mac running Mac OS 7.5.1. Although it's not feature-complete (yet?), it let's you (re-)discover the feel of using a Mac running the classic Mac operating system. Heck, it's even got the flying toasters screen saver!

Got Mac history?

There's our selection of resources to refer to if you want to learn more about how the Mac became what it is today. If you know of similar websites or software, please share them via the comments.