3 ms·

I totally disagree with that. However, I was a Mac user during the 90s. In my experience, software was very reliable then. Of course, you had to be careful with

I totally disagree with that. However, I was a Mac user during the 90s. In my experience, software was very reliable then. Of course, you had to be careful with extensions and other software that could crash the whole system, but once you got a stable system it remained fast and stable. Weird things only happened after Apple transitioned to OS X -- the first versions of OS X with their spinning beach ball of death really were awful.

royjacobs 5y ago
The Mac didn't even have memory protection before OSX iirc? I seem to recall that people would have to restart their Mac if something crashed, since it wouldn't be just the application that would crash - it would be the entire OS.
- dagw 5y ago
  restart their Mac if something crashed Perhaps the lack of memory protection and the catastrophic consequences of an app crashing made Mac developers more careful and aware of the importance of stable software.
JD557 5y ago
I think you might have a bit too much nostalgia (or maybe we just had very different experiences), but I remember Mac OS 8/8.6 crashing a lot, with the dreaded bomb icon. Everyone I knew with an iMac had a toothpick or paper clip in the top handle, due to how common they needed to press the reset hole. At the time my father used to edit a local news paper in PageMaker and it was particularly bad.
- jonathanstrange 5y ago
  Reset holes for paper clips? I can't remember any of my Macs having a reset hole like you describe. In any case, I never had to use one. There was a key combo for resetting the OS.
- warrenm 5y ago
  >Everyone I knew with an iMac had a toothpick or paper clip in the top handle, due to how common they needed to press the reset hole. What kind of Mac were you running? The straightened paperclip was only there to eject recalcitrant floppy disks (early on), and then recalcitrant CDs later Restarting the machine was always a menu option or physical button
  - kalleboo 5y ago
    He said iMac - the G3 iMacs had reset/interrupt holes (see to the right of the Ethernet jack) https://i0.wp.com/sixcolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bondi-IMG_0089.jpeg?ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/sixcolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/B...
    - warrenm 5y ago
      there are a LOT of iMac models Never heard of someone needing to reset any of them with a paperclip before
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  I don't know why people are downvoting you. I went to a middle school that was "mac only" in the 90s. They were complete and utter crap. They crashed constantly. The spinning pizza of death made a near hourly appearance. We had two machines issued to each classroom, and most times the kids wouldn't even turn them on they were so bad.
wink 5y ago
As someone doing web development in 2001-2003 and still testing stuff on OS 9... No. It crashed all the time in the office. Several different machines and all I did was open a few web pages and sometimes write down some notes.

royjacobs 5y ago

The Mac didn't even have memory protection before OSX iirc? I seem to recall that people would have to restart their Mac if something crashed, since it wouldn't be just the application that would crash - it would be the entire OS.

dagw 5y ago
restart their Mac if something crashed Perhaps the lack of memory protection and the catastrophic consequences of an app crashing made Mac developers more careful and aware of the importance of stable software.

JD557 5y ago

I think you might have a bit too much nostalgia (or maybe we just had very different experiences), but I remember Mac OS 8/8.6 crashing a lot, with the dreaded bomb icon. Everyone I knew with an iMac had a toothpick or paper clip in the top handle, due to how common they needed to press the reset hole. At the time my father used to edit a local news paper in PageMaker and it was particularly bad.

jonathanstrange 5y ago
Reset holes for paper clips? I can't remember any of my Macs having a reset hole like you describe. In any case, I never had to use one. There was a key combo for resetting the OS.
warrenm 5y ago
>Everyone I knew with an iMac had a toothpick or paper clip in the top handle, due to how common they needed to press the reset hole. What kind of Mac were you running? The straightened paperclip was only there to eject recalcitrant floppy disks (early on), and then recalcitrant CDs later Restarting the machine was always a menu option or physical button
- kalleboo 5y ago
  He said iMac - the G3 iMacs had reset/interrupt holes (see to the right of the Ethernet jack) https://i0.wp.com/sixcolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bondi-IMG_0089.jpeg?ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/sixcolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/B...
  - warrenm 5y ago
    there are a LOT of iMac models Never heard of someone needing to reset any of them with a paperclip before
horsawlarway 5y ago
I don't know why people are downvoting you. I went to a middle school that was "mac only" in the 90s. They were complete and utter crap. They crashed constantly. The spinning pizza of death made a near hourly appearance. We had two machines issued to each classroom, and most times the kids wouldn't even turn them on they were so bad.

wink 5y ago

As someone doing web development in 2001-2003 and still testing stuff on OS 9... No. It crashed all the time in the office. Several different machines and all I did was open a few web pages and sometimes write down some notes.