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The "Ruby" iMac was the first Apple computer I could afford to buy, and I loved it. In fact, I still have it and it works beautifully (except for the CD tray,

The "Ruby" iMac was the first Apple computer I could afford to buy, and I loved it. In fact, I still have it and it works beautifully (except for the CD tray, which to my knowledge is unrepairable as there are no replacement devices out there - I have to use a firewire external instead). I'd used Apple computers throughout art school in the 90s, and absolutely loved the UI. I used Windows NT at work, and the iMac at home. Back then I used Earthlink to get online and check my email. I used Macromedia products for web design. And Adobe products for, well, photoshop mainly. Later in the early 2000's when I saw people upgrading to OS X, I clung to 9.2.2 and made that machine keep that OS forever. I later got an iBook with OS X and loved the new experience, but I always missed (and still do) the look and feel and sounds of the earlier OS. Simply opening and closing the Control Strip was a joy.

jwells89 3y ago
> I later got an iBook with OS X and loved the new experience, but I always missed (and still do) the look and feel and sounds of the earlier OS. > > Simply opening and closing the Control Strip was a joy. It’s too bad that Classic Mac OS soundsets didn’t make the cut when selecting features to bring over to OS X. I can understand why they might disabled by default but they would’ve been nice to have as an option. Same for Appearance Manager themes, really. That feature was never really marketed much and many users probably didn’t even know they existed since OS 8.5-9.2 only included Platinum, but it was cool to have theming capabilities on par with the third party Kaleidoscope (which is unparalleled on modern operating systems — not even Linux can compare) built right in, but that’s just not something that could’ve happened worth Jobs at the helm.
- erickhill 3y ago
  A couple of years ago I discovered a way to make my modern Macs produce the “bonnng” chime on boot-up. It’s actually still there but hidden for some reason. IIRC I had to enable it via the Terminal, which seemed really weird. But it was a total joy when it sprang back to life.
  - glhaynes 3y ago
    For a while there it was off by default, but I'm fairly sure it's back to being on out of the box on current machines. It's also now exposed through the UI: Settings > Sound > Play sound on startup.
    - erickhill 3y ago
      Good to know, thanks!
EamonnMR 3y ago
The tray loaders are in fact easier to replace than the slot loaders. But you can find working slot loader drives too.

jwells89 3y ago

> I later got an iBook with OS X and loved the new experience, but I always missed (and still do) the look and feel and sounds of the earlier OS. > > Simply opening and closing the Control Strip was a joy. It’s too bad that Classic Mac OS soundsets didn’t make the cut when selecting features to bring over to OS X. I can understand why they might disabled by default but they would’ve been nice to have as an option. Same for Appearance Manager themes, really. That feature was never really marketed much and many users probably didn’t even know they existed since OS 8.5-9.2 only included Platinum, but it was cool to have theming capabilities on par with the third party Kaleidoscope (which is unparalleled on modern operating systems — not even Linux can compare) built right in, but that’s just not something that could’ve happened worth Jobs at the helm.

erickhill 3y ago
A couple of years ago I discovered a way to make my modern Macs produce the “bonnng” chime on boot-up. It’s actually still there but hidden for some reason. IIRC I had to enable it via the Terminal, which seemed really weird. But it was a total joy when it sprang back to life.
- glhaynes 3y ago
  For a while there it was off by default, but I'm fairly sure it's back to being on out of the box on current machines. It's also now exposed through the UI: Settings > Sound > Play sound on startup.
  - erickhill 3y ago
    Good to know, thanks!

EamonnMR 3y ago

The tray loaders are in fact easier to replace than the slot loaders. But you can find working slot loader drives too.