Thread
Do you miss the happy mac?
Well, I allways found it a touch self indulgent on Apples behalf, a little pompous, "We are Apple and look at us we're really cool and with it", yeah, yeah, blah blah, perhaps Apple was with it for nerdy American school kids!
I miss Gem, The little green desktop, so welcoming, so bright, so fun
I miss Gem, The little green desktop, so welcoming, so bright, so fun
It is said, in many different ways, that "You don't know where you're arriving unless you know where you came from". Apple's little touches, in the Happy and Sad Macs, signatures moulded into cases, the Easter Eggs and other 'in' jokes or characteristic references, were a human touch in the potentially forbidding new world of computing. Let's keep in mind that buyers of Apples, and then Macs, were sometimes as infatuated with computing as they were intent on getting some job done. For the latter, thoughtful and effective software. For the former, a sense of belonging as well as the hardware and software.
If Apple throws overboard all of its history, it will be the loser. It needs to be as aware of its beginnings as Apple Computer as it is of what appeals to a mass market in the way of tools (for the serious) and diversions (for the acquisitive). What Apple has always had has been design quality, both æsthetic and functional (with some bloopers, admittedly). Only a commitment to being different and better, as opposed to different for difference's sake (look at many PC bells-and-whistles towers) will give them the edge as platforms converge. Remembering their history, with a dab of humour deftly applied, may keep their feet on the ground.
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If Apple throws overboard all of its history, it will be the loser. It needs to be as aware of its beginnings as Apple Computer as it is of what appeals to a mass market in the way of tools (for the serious) and diversions (for the acquisitive). What Apple has always had has been design quality, both æsthetic and functional (with some bloopers, admittedly). Only a commitment to being different and better, as opposed to different for difference's sake (look at many PC bells-and-whistles towers) will give them the edge as platforms converge. Remembering their history, with a dab of humour deftly applied, may keep their feet on the ground.
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vassilizaitsev: If you mean GEM, it's still being developed in the form of Shane Land's OpenGEM.
It's very interesting and vaguely Windows 3.1ish.
http://gem.shaneland.co.uk/
It's very interesting and vaguely Windows 3.1ish.
http://gem.shaneland.co.uk/
I think he's actually talking about something totally un-related to computers. (and much, much nicer....on some days 
) Such as.....women? 
I don't really miss the Happy Mac though...i still have my vintage Macs, that still show it. But i do remember when Jag came out, i was doing work experience at a local Apple retailer, fixing Macs. Anyway, one of the techs already had it up and running on his Sage iMac a couple of days after the release, and i asked him, "is it true that they've done away with the Happy Mac?". He booted up the iMac and said, "yeah, all you get now is an Apple logo, and it is very boring."
But yeah...Macster, i have to admit...the Vista boot screen does look a bit off...maybe its just me, but to me, the whole lack of a boot logo looks a bit beta-ish to me.
) Such as.....women? I don't really miss the Happy Mac though...i still have my vintage Macs, that still show it. But i do remember when Jag came out, i was doing work experience at a local Apple retailer, fixing Macs. Anyway, one of the techs already had it up and running on his Sage iMac a couple of days after the release, and i asked him, "is it true that they've done away with the Happy Mac?". He booted up the iMac and said, "yeah, all you get now is an Apple logo, and it is very boring."
But yeah...Macster, i have to admit...the Vista boot screen does look a bit off...maybe its just me, but to me, the whole lack of a boot logo looks a bit beta-ish to me.
Apparently, in beta versions of Mac OS 8, the Happy Mac would wink at you, but they removed the code in the final version, as they thought it would be offensive to some cultures. However, if you look at the icns resources of either the System or the Finder (IIRC it was the System file) in ResEdit, you can still see the images, they left the images there, they simply just removed the code.
Admittedly a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, when in another forum I used frequently to answer questions about or need to refer to the boot process for older Systems, Happy Mac was an important 'milestone' after the early indications of correct startup: chime, raster, pointer, Happy Mac, splash screen, desktop. Happy Mac's significance to Startup Manager's finding valid boot blocks and a valid System Folder was an important verification that is not paralleled in OS X, and a good example of the humanity in Mac software that was previously mentioned. As for Happy Mac's alter ego, even if it is graphically challenged it has its place in the firmament also.
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Spot on.I think he's actually talking about something totally un-related to computers. (and much, much nicer....on some days
Anyway, i'm guessing in early days of the Mac the Happy Mac was to indicate everything was ok, that the disk was bootable and that the machine was operationally sound. Later on as hard disks came in, the Mac OS evolved and hardware became more complex, it seemed redundant but still a Macintosh Icon (pardon the pun). It had a good run and I fail to see why some are so emotional over a 32x32 pixel graphic no longer present (and yes, there are the few like that out there).
Yeah, I got it, I run it on the dos card on my Quadra 650.
Gem for the pc isn't quite the same as Gem for the st, but it's still nice.
Windows users usually say Gem is a bit like Apple os, Apple users usually say Gem is a bit like Windows.
I say Gem is better than either and yes has certain bits from both, but it's just friendlier and more intuitive to use IMO (Atari st with Gem being my first GUI!)
But PS: go to the news section at Shaneland, 16/09/2005 was the last update hmphhhh.
yeah, and you know why? It was developed on Apple Lisa [
] ]'>
http://www.homecomputer.de/pages/f_info.html?Apple_Lisa2_5_Atari.html
click on the picture to see atari logo on lisa
and here is Gary Kildall (Digital Research - GEM) working on apple lisa
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/images/t_kildall.jpg
] ]'>http://www.homecomputer.de/pages/f_info.html?Apple_Lisa2_5_Atari.html
click on the picture to see atari logo on lisa
and here is Gary Kildall (Digital Research - GEM) working on apple lisa
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/images/t_kildall.jpg