Which Color Ofi Mac

Beige, please.

It will never happen, here's an example of why...

A large television company that produces sports and news programs often shows, behind the presenters, staffers working on the computer system, gathering information from newsfeeds, databases and such-like. They used to use VT100 terminals, but replaced them all with iMacs running VT100 emulators.

But the iMac looks like a refugee from an overly cute anime series. Which would be one thing if it were a plush toy or on VHS or DVD, but otherwise it really doesn't fit in next to the NeXT cube. And I can see why this might be useful for a TV news (I really wanted to say NeWS here) show, I'd still rather have beige.

Maybe, instead of the color people should be very concerned about what's inside (or lack thereof). Slow, no floppy disk, no expansion slots, no FireWire support (came from Apple!), an OS that hasn't changed in 15 years! (Still no PREEMPTIVE MULTITASKING - inexcusable!)

Two corrections: MacOs has changed dramatically in 15 years. True, it still doesn't have protected memory or preemptive multitasking (Windows 98 doesn't have protected memory either), at least not until this summer. Oh, and the newer iMacs do have firewire. Who needs floppies, anyway? Time to drop those things and use modern technology. Most people (probably >95%) never use their expansion slots, so not having them is a non-issue. For people who do need them, the G4's use PCI slots just like everyone else.

Who needs floppies? Well, almost anyone writing an OS. Many people who need to copy files from work to home or vice versa (not everyone has broadband yet). They make great emergency startup disks. And so forth.

On the other hand, people who hack their own compiler would rather have G4's clean RISCy instruction set than some brain-dead Intel CISC madness. And remember, the iMac is basically the only RISC computer in the PC price range.

This statement might have been correct 7 or 10 years ago, but it is no longer true. The lines are awfully blurry these days. Your G4 chip is not RISC any more in the purest sense of the word, and your PIII is not CISC in the purest sense of the word. There are no (to my knowledge) consumer level pure RISC chipsets. Especially the G4. -- IoaPetraka

Besides, who said anything about MacOS? Anyone with a grain of common sense would run Linux on such a beast.

Most teenage girls don't care that much about preemptive multitasking

I disagree.. I've seen teenage girls multitask phone calls in ways that few OS designers could comphrehend.

Not like that was meant to be sexist or ageist or demeaning at all, right...?

That is exactly why Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. The vast majority of people really don't care whether their computer supports the latest goolglaflip 1.0 interface standard, or does preemptive multitasking. They only care whether it looks cool, matches their decor and can be used to send email and browse the web. Those who do worry about technical details can buy a G4 Mac.

But can you get a G4 Mac in beige?

MacOS X adds preemptive multitasking, since MacOsxIsUnixBased.

However... preemptive multitasking is not always a boon. MacOsClassic was used widely within the music industry for sequencing and synthesis because the cooperative multitasking allows very predictable real-time behaviour. Unless MacOsx supports some form of real-time scheduling, musicians could well be tempted to move over to another platform, perhaps BeOs.

The iMac still doesn't remove the messiest and largest computing eyesore: the usual thick tangle of cables and adaptors.

As far as human factors go, the iMac is probably the most comfortable, fun machine I've ever used. SteveJobs is right about fan elimination. When I was an undergrad I used to get a headache within 5 minutes of using the hot, noisy PC lab. I got a lot more done in a quiet, cool vt100 lab. Machine noise might not seem very significant but over a period of time (especially if you have many machines in one room) it does take its toll.

Which is probably part of why some people listen to music a lot while in front of their computers. And the last machine I remember using that didn't have a fan would be an Apple ][...

And the big question... "Why should people care about the color of their computer?

Oh yes, I forget, these are Mac owners. ;->

Why care about the color of a refrigerator? A telephone? Any other appliance? Or your car, for that matter?

It doesn't matter if they should. It matters if they do.

<RANT> A while ago (not long enough, unfortunately), I realized that we in the software trade are mere humble servants. Our only purpose is to solve problems for other people. Problems arise when we condescendingly question why the users should care about this or that. For instance, "Why should users care about fancy GUIs? CLIs are sooooo much more powerful." Or, my personal favourite these days, "Why should programmers want to touch the code? My whiz-bang CASE tool code-by-numbers is sooo much smarter than everyone! I'll just make it darn right near impossible to let 'em screw with the code." Perhaps the users know more about their local problem domain than any of your ThreeRingBinders could ever. </RANT> -- SunirShah

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Idoru by WilliamGibson. Sandbenders and the ilk. It may have been revolutionary for Steve Jobs to do it, but we wasn't the first. Even in the RealWorld, ThePandaProject beat him. The reasons are obvious: people want to personalize their merchandise - probably because they can't personalize themselves. -- SunirShah (P.S. Gibson is a Mac user)

I would love to get a sand benders. I care a lot about the quality, feel, and look of my computer gear (probably my favorite thing about my Kodak DC-215 digicam is the aluminum case and the quality heft it has). I use a stereo from the 70s because I like it's UI, even though it doesn't have many features that I could use (I am working at adding some stuff inside the case). I love the way the buttons feel on my car stereo (I'd sad I'm going to have to replace it because it doesn't work). And I paid a lot extra for a keyboard that I liked.

Anyway, I don't object to people being able to pick their computer color. I just want to be able to pick the color I want, and fruity candy colors are not on the list of colors I'd like own(and the G4 graphite case is only marginally better). At least with beige you could usually repaint the cases easily.

Agreed. I want a computer that says something. That shows some form of quality or personality that is missing from most of the mass-produced PC clones today. QWAN, if you will. My PC clone doesn't address this need the way an SE/30 does. An SE/30 case has character, an InWin? Q500 full tower case doesn't. Too bad the PC clone is more useful these days...

Hrm... Idoru is actually on my bookshelf, but it hasn't yet made it's way onto my to read list. It's being mentioned with more frequency, though, so perhaps I'll queue it next.

What does SteveJobs have against perl programmers anyway? There's no hash symbol (#) on the iMacs I've seen here in the UK. --

SteveJobs doesn't hate perl programmers. He just hates it when those uppity brits try and run unix software (or even think about unix software) anywhere near his precious baby. And since the # key is needed in many of the seminal unix programs, what better way to discourage them from even thinking about using those programs than to remove the most important key.

SteveJobs hates me! Great! I'm in the majority for once. -- UpityBrit?

SteveJobs just wants you to encourage to write SelfDocumentingCode!

Dunno about iMacs, but on a UK-ish PowerBook '#' is mapped to alt-3, which isn't great.

Why should people care about the color of their computer?

Because I look at it twelve hours a day. Why should you care about the color of your car or wallpaper?

You stare at your computer case for 12 hours a day?! Hmmm, I'd say that isn't typical. Most people are looking at the phosphors glowing in their monitor. That is what I look at, my case remains under the desk, out of the way, out of sight, where it should be. -- IoaPetraka

Personally I've always wanted 1950s style long red fins on my monitor. It wouldn't speed it up, but it would look faster.

Say no more: http://www.mcphee.com/bigindex/current/10550.html

-- ShaeErisson

Hey if you really want some interesting looking computer cases, try these:

http://www.colorcase.com/ http://planetquake.com/quakecon2k/casecontest.shtml http://www.computersdivine.com/main.htm

Or most wildly: http://developer.intel.com/technology/easeofuse/conceptpc.htm

-- StevenNewton

Interesting, later iMacs know what colour they are, and in IE5 you can use not only match MicrosoftInternetExplorer's chrome to the case, but also use the casecolor (or something similar) constant in a local CSS for that totally coordinated LookAndFeel?.

-- ElliotMerrony

Some years ago (it's now 2005) I was wandering around at CompUSA. I was using an ancient Mac SE then, and I'm not sure if all the iMac colors had come out yet. Anyway, I noticed the customers in the Apple section of the store looked different from the customers in the rest of the store. The Apple customers struck me as people who shopped at health food stores. After the iMacs started coming in several colors, I was shopping at a health food store and as I looked at each person I wondered what color their iMac was. Next thing I know, my beau and I, wherever we were, would look at a person then speculate about what color that person's computer is. Me, I've been using a lime iMac for almost six years now and I buy puffed millet cereal at a health food store. Oh, and his new PC came in a super-duper blue gaming case that he didn't order but kept anyway. -- ElizabethWiethoff