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[NEWS] System 7 turns 35

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  [NEWS] System 7 turns 35 Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2026-05-14 18:16 +1200
    Re: [NEWS] System 7 turns 35 Smithwicks <enjoyasmithwicks@myplace.com> - 2026-05-19 02:52 -0400
      Re: [NEWS] System 7 turns 35 "Sebastian P." <info@cornica.org> - 2026-05-30 10:27 +0200
        Re: [NEWS] System 7 turns 35 Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2026-05-31 10:54 +1200
          Re: [NEWS] System 7 turns 35 Calum <com.gmail@nospam.scottishwildcat> - 2026-05-31 17:15 +0100

#1675 — [NEWS] System 7 turns 35

    35 years ago, the Mac got an era-defining upgrade
    -------------------------------------------------
    System 7 is mostly forgotten today, but we're all still using
    many of its innovations.

    A lot of Mac users don't remember a time before Mac OS X (or
    macOS, or OS X, depending on the era), but before OS X arrived
    on the scene, the Mac ran on an entirely different operating
    system, the classic Mac OS, which was with us from the Mac's
    launch in 1984 through the funeral Steve Jobs held for
    Mac OS 9 in 2002.

    The original Mac OS evolved a lot across those 18 years. And
    perhaps its single most important update, System 7, arrived
    35 years ago this month, in May of 1991.

    It seems like a footnote now, but so much of what we take for
    granted on the Mac today was introduced in System 7. Take it
    from someone who was there - I wanted System 7 so badly,
    I downloaded a load of floppy disk images across my college
    computer network so I could install it. And I wasn't
    disappointed by what I got. System 7 really did show the way
    to the future of the Mac.

Long article continues at:
<https://www.macworld.com/article/3136937/35-years-ago-system-7-era-defining-upgrade.html> 

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#1676

In article <10u3pci$3ib0u$1@dont-email.me>,
 Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

>     35 years ago, the Mac got an era-defining upgrade
>     -------------------------------------------------
>     System 7 is mostly forgotten today, but we're all still using
>     many of its innovations.
> 
>     A lot of Mac users don't remember a time before Mac OS X (or
>     macOS, or OS X, depending on the era), but before OS X arrived
>     on the scene, the Mac ran on an entirely different operating
>     system, the classic Mac OS, which was with us from the Mac's
>     launch in 1984 through the funeral Steve Jobs held for
>     Mac OS 9 in 2002.
> 
>     The original Mac OS evolved a lot across those 18 years. And
>     perhaps its single most important update, System 7, arrived
>     35 years ago this month, in May of 1991.
> 
>     It seems like a footnote now, but so much of what we take for
>     granted on the Mac today was introduced in System 7. Take it
>     from someone who was there - I wanted System 7 so badly,
>     I downloaded a load of floppy disk images across my college
>     computer network so I could install it. And I wasn't
>     disappointed by what I got. System 7 really did show the way
>     to the future of the Mac.
> 
> Long article continues at:
> <https://www.macworld.com/article/3136937/35-years-ago-system-7-era-defining-u
> pgrade.html> 

It really can't be understated how pivotal System 7 was to the world of 
computing at large. Those major updates along the way, especially when 
you have the chance to tinker around with the differences on a retro 
piece of hardware via a BlueSCSI or similar, really felt like wholly 
different OSes.

System 7 was, by far, the longest supported Macintosh Operating System 
(not even just Classic MacOS): 6+ years, with MacOS 8 replacing it for a 
relatively short jaunt in the late 90s before MacOS 9 came on the scene 
and stole the show.

People love to talk about Snow Leopard as the greatest of the Mac OS 
Xes, but to equivocate it with System 7 it would've had to come on the 
scene in late 2009 and started being replaced only in 2015! By 2015 
Apple had released Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, AND El 
Capitan - that's a world of difference for the same length of time.

I think it also says something to the versatility of System 7 that, by 
and large, unless you've got a PowerPC Mac capable of running the 
(phenomenal) MacOS9Lives! version of 9.2.2... everyone on retro hardware 
seems to be running something on the System 7 spectrum (with due honor 
and respect to those repping MacOS 8).

-- 
*~~a blonde may be fair~~*
*~and a brunette upscale~*
*~~but as my name hints~~*
*~~~I prefer a red ale~~~*

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#1681

In article <enjoyasmithwicks-862FB4.02525719052026@news.eternal-september.org>,
 Smithwicks <enjoyasmithwicks@myplace.com> wrote:

> I think it also says something to the versatility of System 7 that, by 
> and large, unless you've got a PowerPC Mac capable of running the 
> (phenomenal) MacOS9Lives! version of 9.2.2... everyone on retro hardware 
> seems to be running something on the System 7 spectrum (with due honor 
> and respect to those repping MacOS 8).

I fully agree. It's just a well-rounded classic operating system with a myriad 
of great software to pick from. If I see what owners of 68k Amigas or Atari STs 
suggest as productivity software on their systems and then I look at Word 5.1, 
WriteNow, Excel, Photoshop, Apple Works, BBEdit (the list goes on) I can barely 
hold back a smile.

Yeah, they may have more and better (action) games but that's about it. System 7 
is awesome and also very reliable if you stick with certain versions.

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#1682

On 2026-05-30 08:27:18 +0000, Sebastian P. said:
> In article <enjoyasmithwicks-862FB4.02525719052026@news.eternal-september.org>,
>  Smithwicks <enjoyasmithwicks@myplace.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I think it also says something to the versatility of System 7 that, by
>> and large, unless you've got a PowerPC Mac capable of running the
>> (phenomenal) MacOS9Lives! version of 9.2.2... everyone on retro hardware
>> seems to be running something on the System 7 spectrum (with due honor
>> and respect to those repping MacOS 8).
> 
> I fully agree. It's just a well-rounded classic operating system with a myriad
> of great software to pick from. If I see what owners of 68k Amigas or Atari STs
> suggest as productivity software on their systems and then I look at Word 5.1,
> WriteNow, Excel, Photoshop, Apple Works, BBEdit (the list goes on) I can barely
> hold back a smile.
> 
> Yeah, they may have more and better (action) games but that's about it. 
> System 7
> is awesome and also very reliable if you stick with certain versions.

The Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST were good computers technically 
(barring the silliness of different RAM types on the Amiga), but they 
were let down by clunky knock-offs of the Mac OS, although they were 
still much better than Microsloth Windoze. The Amiga was also let down 
by Commodore management having no clue what to do with it and 
constantly changing their tiny minds.

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#1683

On 30/05/2026 23:54, Your Name wrote:

> The Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST were good computers technically 
> (barring the silliness of different RAM types on the Amiga), but they 
> were let down by clunky knock-offs of the Mac OS, although they were 
> still much better than Microsloth Windoze.

Other than the fact it used windows, a menu bar and a mouse, Workbench 
was about as different from MacOS as it was possible to be, not least 
because it supported preemptive multitasking before any other consumer 
operating system. (One thing I still miss from Workbench is the way it 
allowed you to check or uncheck multiple items in a menu at once, 
without the menu disappearing after you clicked the first one.)

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