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Macintosh's 1984 Debut

Posted by michael on from the $2495-cheap dept.

Stephen E. Jobs writes "SiliconValley.com is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Mac by republishing some of its coverage of the machine's 1984 launch. 'After two years of secrecy, brainstorming and sometimes zany company maneuvering, Apple Computer Inc. will unveil a new personal computer Jan. 24 that is the size of a stack of paper and, for about the same price, contains more power than the basic IBM PC.' That's how one writer described the Apple Macintosh in 1984. There's more at SiliconValley.com."

2 of 613 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mod parent down- He doesn't know by Endive4Ever · · Score: 0, Redundant
    (Don't forget that IBM had their own competing OS - PC DOS - that MS-DOS was a clone of, and this was what was generally installed on clone machines.)


    PC-DOS and MS-DOS weren't 'clone' siblings. They were the same code base. Microsoft produced both, but IBM was involved and as the 'golden' OEM had seperate marketing arrangements. Back in the day the only way to get MS-DOS was to buy it bundled with a machine. You were NEVER able to retail-box buy a copy of MS-DOS prior to version 6.22. There was an MS-DOS 6.0 'step up' available by retail, but the only way to get MS-DOS in the old days was bundled with hardware as an OEM purchase.

    PC-DOS on the other hand was available as a shrink-wrapped box item on the retail shelf. From IBM.

    There's a long complex versioning history for MS-DOS and it's quite colorful. For instance Version 2.0 was the first version to support the hard drive. The hard drive didn't have a 'door' to close, so whereas when formatting a floppy with 2.0 it prompted you to put a blank disk in the drive and close the door, if you typed 'Format C:' it didn't need to prompt you. It just went off and formatted the C: drive. The obvious verify Y/N warning was added with 2.1.

    But it's obscene to blather about MS-DOS in a Macintosh topic, isn't it??

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  2. nobody mentioned the mouse! by Satanboy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Well, I for one found the article intriguing, I remember the first time I went from my NEC 8080 to a mac and was like 'what is this weird square thing with the button?'. I actually giggled out loud (my roomate probably thinks I am insane) when I read the description of the mouse. hee hee hee. boy how times have changed, nowadays if someone doesn't know what a mouse is, you think their insane! This article gives a little history