4 thoughts on “The history of the Mac startup sound”

1. I’ve owned or worked on Macs that started up with pretty much every one of these sounds.

   While I relied on the ability to silence them for public use (say, in a library), startup sounds were helpful, if only to confirm that one’s little beast was successfully booting. I miss them and the power-on light equally. Less isn’t always more, Sir Jony.

2. Amen.

3. As an older Gen X Long time Mac user I kind of miss sometimes!

4. Just enough is more, IMVHO. The chime denotes personality and utility both. This means I’m keeping my 12MB alive for as long as possible.

   I’ve always bought and preferred Apple portables, but my favorite chime came from my Power Macintosh 6400. That thing made itself known at startup.