This really takes me back. Clarus was one of the elements that really showed the difference between Apple and the rest of the gray, gray world. I miss that particular brand of quirkiness.
Stephen Hackett does a nice job bringing this history to life in the video embedded below.
Moof!
When he mentioned that he’s been using the Mac since 2001or so, it got me wondering how long some people who frequent here have been using the Mac, for me, it’s since 1989, with a Mac IIcx, followed by (what became my favorite at the time) A Mac IIci. Not the first Macs I used, but the first brand new Macs.
Anyone else?
I loved ResEdit too.
Started off on Apple ][e with 2 disk drives Green screen Apple Monitor & TV. Such great memories. : )
I’m surprised that he didn’t mention that Apple’s subsidiary software company, Claris, was named after the famed dogcow (with spelling changed, of course).
(First Mac was 2-floppy SE in 1988)
Came here to say just that. That’s on par with people complaining that laptops ‘all look the same, with a keyboard and big trackpad in front’ when all laptops like that can directly trace their design lineage to the Powerbook 540….
Good old ATM. Now I am thinking about RAM doubler…
On March 19th, I’ll have been a Mac broadcaster for *25 years*. 🙂
First Mac was the Mac Plus in July 1986. It’s been 33 years and I’m up to an iMac, iPhone XR, Apple Watch 4, and old MacBook. Still have an SE/30 and 128 Mac in the attic. Met my wife of 28 years because of Macs and will be Apple until the end.
Moof indeed.
Congratulations. Also, I have been reading your pieces / listening for as long! : )
It’s interesting how he describes how “computer companies used to take themselves way less seriously” as though beige-box makers like Compaq or HP were somehow being anywhere near as whimsical or considerate with UI for their users as Apple was.
That’s some halo effect, right there.
Whenever I see Clarus the Dogcow I want to fire up my trusty Lightspeed C and bake me some tasty icons in ResEdit. I had so much fun programming in those days.
Masochist… 🙂
Started off on Apple ][e with 2 disk drives Green screen Apple Monitor & TV. Such great memories. : )
That is exactly the first Mac I used too! I mentioned the IIcx, and IIci, because that was the first year I used a brand new Mac in a work environment. Before that, at home, it was a Commodore 64, and a VIC-20. Later my brother bought a Commodore PET.
1988 here, after several years using my Apple ][+ (with the Apple /// green screen monitor) when I got a Mac Plus (a well-used demo model from a local computer store). My first brand new Mac was the PowerMac 7200 I got many years later…My latest was the Mini I got…last July because my old one died, just a few months before they massively updated the line 🙁
I still remember the trepidation I felt when clipping those resistors on the motherboard of that Plus to increase the ram to the gargantuan 1 MB. Also the joy when I could finally run OS 7 AND Adobe Type Manager at the same time because I’d finally gotten an external 800K floppy disk.
I also still have the case cracker around somewhere and the 12″ Torx 11 screwdriver that came with the memory kit
Bingo.
It’s a common problem. After all, everybody knows Apple didn’t invent the modern smartphone UI. It just sort of appeared everywhere all at once, right?
ResEdit scared the besqueezus out of me, mostly because I’d already almost washed out of college-level computer science and didn’t have the confidence for making changes of any kind. But it was fun to poke around.
Dang, you’re old.
Dang it, now I wish I’d never given my SE to that friend of mine.
It was great. I had all custom command keyboard shortcuts, for the Finder, all applications, etc. If anyone used my Mac they’d be a little confused. I changed splash screens, or removed them. It allowed me to customize the mac on so many levels. I still miss it.
Wish I could remember the first Mac I tried out, but I bought my first Mac, an SE FDHD, in 1990. A considerable outlay (back then) for the package that included an ImageWriter II. It prepped me well for what I followed it with, a Quadra 650.
Skipped right over the non-Mac Apple gear because it looked too much like every other green-screen purgatory I’d ever had to use at school.
I wasn’t interested in writing programs; I’d been waiting for a computer that would let me do analog-type work, and after having read about this new thing in the magazines for at least a year or two. Wish I could remember where I first heard of the Mac, but I’m very happy I did.
My first purchased Mac, which is in my basement stil next to my Cube, is a Mac IIx. I bought a greyscale 19” Monitor, it was bigger, and I was using it for Illustration in Illustrator 88 (I think it was), who needs color right?? Ha! I did some photography on it too, but again, greyscale photos in Digital Darkroom. I still remember when I upgraded the processor, I brought it over to one of my past photography teachers, so we could see how fast it re-drew. I can’t even imagine what I would do now if I saw an illustration “re-drawing” in front of me. “What the hell is wrong with this thing!” Ah, how quickly things have changed. : )
A II or IIx was the first Mac I worked on professionally, at a publishing house that used them. One of their book designers tested my production capability on the thing; vertical grayscale monitor and all. I got the job, and eventually learned enough about the OS, QuarkXpress, font conflicts, and diagnostics to help out the entire design department as a production design assistant.
I’d read what the capabilities were, but I sure as hell didn’t trust myself to mess with them until much later.