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| Messages - adrianrmarsh | |
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Operating System / Re: Article: Welcome to Bloat OS (Mac OS 9)
September 24, 2021, 08:19 |
This article, from late 1999, is almost prophetic in its evaluation of where Apple's OS's were (and are) going – no real development in functionality and speed (to say nothing of originality), enormous operating systems that fill up hard drives (or SSD's these days) and no real improvement in speed, despite major improvements in hardware and architecture. When I think about my Newton MessagePad 2100 and my iPhone SE, the comparison is astonishing and becomes even more so when software is considered - the things that Newton MessagePads could do and the wonderful software created for them with tiny memory demands, compared to the bloated, frankly invasive and privacy-reducing 'apps' on the iPhone, it is truly appalling what has happened. Notifications used to be useful, telling you about meetings and calls that you needed to attend to, things to do that needed doing and genuine tasks that resulted in better productivity (whether in business, academia or everyday life). The irony of the passage of time that this article demonstrates is how little we appreciated Mac OS9 at the time, and how wonderful it was (and still is; I'm writing this on my PowerBook 'Pismo' running OS9.2.2), and what horrors awaited us with Mac OSX, [anti] social media and the descent of Apple into rampant consumerism from being a computer company. System 7 was faster, leaner and more efficient and can still be productive, useful and enjoyable (that has disappeared from computer use in general, as we've become slaves to commodification, commercialisation and exploitation of our machines and OS's, subject to the whims of 'fashion' and 'fad' rather than genuine innovation – all form and no legitimate content), but OS9 was (and remains) a brilliant system to use on G3 and G4 machines. It is also fun, even though it crashes (usually when browsing the web and faced with the monstrosity that the Internet has become – which is why we love 'the Old Net', isn't it?) in a way that MacOS now is just irritating, intrusive and sometimes mind-numbingly coercive in the constant barrage of 'social media' notifications. Instead of being the athelete with the sledge hammer, launching it at the screen image of Big Brother, we've become the grey, bald drones placidly consuming Big Brother's (Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Twitter and yes, Apple) torrent of disinformation and 'newspeak', 'doublespeak' and 'commercialspeak'. And we did it ourselves, we signed up to giving away our privacy, our freedom from endless (and pointless) consumption, our independent and critical perspective on the world, our ability to communicate creatively and meaningfully using amazing technology. From this rather bleak perspective, using System 7, Newton OS, OS8, OS9 are not the reactionary impulses of a group of dwindling (older) oddballs, but a revolutionary act to reclaim, revitalise and reinvent 'the joy of computing' (to misquote the title of a famous 'health' manual). By the G3 and PowerBook, set our people free! :-) |
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New Member Welcome / Merhaba! Greetings from Istanbul (not Constantinople)
March 20, 2021, 14:04 |
Having been a long time member of the Macintosh Garden (over ten years), it was a great pleasure to sign-up to this wonderful site. My first Mac was indeed a System 7 Colour Classic II, bought in 1993 when I returned to university. By sheer coincidence, the college that I attended was the School of Slavonic & East European Studies (now part of UCL), a small institution that ran entirely on Macs and my Colour Classic II (shipped from Ireland) was something of a sensation, as it was the last of the compact Macs and unusual even at the time. PowerBook 5300, 1400c, PowerBook G3 'Lombard', 'Pismo', Performas and then the more modern iBook, PowerBook G4's, iMacs and MacBook. I'm still using the 'Pismo' most of the time, though the iMac 2009, a PowerBook G4 15" and a MacBook Pro sit on the desk too. Id really like to find another Colour Classic, but the only ones for sale seem extravagantly expensive. Now living and working in Istanbul, where older Macs are even rarer than hen's teeth, but I live in hope of finding another System 7 Mac somewhere in this Oriental emporium... |
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