Edit: I’m pretty sure I mixed Performas with LCs, because “LC” stood for “Learning (Center?),” or some other “C-word.” (Please, fellow folks, be mindful that Austin is hanging, on this thread (but not in _that_ way), and try to hold back from elucidating, with any inappropriate “C-word” abbreviation clarifications... )
I was a Product Lead for Power Computing during 1995-1999l I loved that company. Though I would not call myself a Mac Guy, since during my tech years I was a window , unix, and Mac admin.... I had so much fun during my time. :-) (1998 - 1999 we maintained our Power Computing brand while Apple devoured our little company. )
Power Computing as a stand alone unit were ok but trying get them to work with other macs or Mac accessories such as high end scanners were a bastard due to their non Mac interface architecture, we had 2 in our studio but after struggling with them for 18 months we binned them to buy Mac quadras
I think the real reason behind that would be to promote the new OS as "Sony recommended" as back in the day people used to actually prefer their stuff being high quality and pretty and not trendy. So having Mac OS 8, a piece of garbage software at the time made by a small failing company, endorsed by the greatest in the tech industry (or any Japanese/ European company for that matter) would lift Apple out of obscurity and make an american company trustworthy for pretty much the first time in the EU and Japan. However at the time Windows 95 was way ahead of Mac OS 8 in performance, stability and user friendliness, a situation that wouldn't reverse until Mac OS X Panther/ Windows XP. On a sidenote, why wouldn't he be impressed? My first proper computer was the 2005 VAIO S13. Believe it or not, my father still uses it to this day in his office (he is a doctor). Now try that with the equivalent Powerbook G4 12" which by the way is considerably thicker and heavier!
I'm not surprised, now that I consider how exceptional Sony's hardware was back then. Those old Vaios were both solid and sleek: trademark characteristics of Apple's laptops in the years following Jobs' return to Apple. It feels kind of good to know that there were other manufacturers who cared as much as Apple had about quality hardware.
One interesting detail: Steve Jobs never actually "killed" the licensing program for the Mac clones. The licensing agreement was for the clones to run "Macintosh System 7". So within about a month of Steve Jobs returning to Apple, the operating system update that was slated for mid-1997 and originally going to be called "7.7" was renamed "Mac OS 8", and that was the effective end of the licensing agreement. Also I believe Power Computing was one of a very few (if not the only) manufacturer to sell computers that would run BeOS (dual-boot configurations). At that time (1996-97) BeOS looked like a vision of the future compared to the then antiquated Macintosh System 7.X. I believe your shirt was from Macworld 1997 (pretty sure Power Computing wasn't in business yet in early 1995, they appeared later that year). Macworld 1997 was Power Computing's last real hurrah, they had a bigger presence than Apple that year, and were running a "military" style campaign featuring shirts like yours, camo pants, and staffers driving around the streets of San Francisco in logo-ed Hummers. Very soon after that came the news about "Mac OS 8" and the story of Power Computing and "Mac Clones" came to a speedy conclusion.
The greedy clone makers took advantage of Apple and in doing so, ended their entire business. If they'd produced lower end macs, they might have grown the market as intended and survived. But they went for the high end, taking up the limited supplied of PPC chips and cutting directly into Apple's most valuable sales. They used the cheapest components available while also getting the fastest PPCs to market before Apple; the results were predictable.
@@kirishima638 Power Computing and the other "Mac Clone" manufacturers were selling a variety of systems, not just high end. But in this era Apple's development process was slowing down, and these smaller companies lacking Apple's management issues were able to get new machines to market much faster. There was a great deal of frustration with how long Apple was taking getting new 604-based machines to market, so a lot of "power users" were easily tempted by Power Computing offering that hardware for sale. Apple itself was doing some really "cheap" crap with the "consumer"/"education" focused machines in this era...some of the all-in-one "Performa" machines were technological horror shows. 32 bit CPU's hobbled by slower internal 16-bit busses was a common mid-90's scenario, for just one example. At any rate, I can't see any reason that Mac clone manufacturers producing exclusively "lower end Macs" would have had any effect at all on Steve Jobs' decision.
@@SFDJMark Oh I'm well aware of the garbage Apple was putting out. Pretty much anything with a 4xxx, 5xxx or 6xxx model number was underpowered or crippled in some way. No dispute there. Absolute shit. Apple basically had three CPU architectures back then; the decent but old 601, the low/power 603 which Apple used without a cache and on mbos designed for the 68040, and the top end 604. The whole industry was obsessed with Mhz and the only chips that could be run at faster rates were the 603 and 604. That said, the cloners could have made better 601 and 603 based machines instead of syphoning off the limited supply of 604s. They could have been competitive without cutting directly into Apple's lifeblood. If it wasn't for the System 7 clause in the contract, the cloners would have killed the entire platform.
Gawd you’re young! In 1996, I graduated high school! 🤣 But I watched this era unfold in the pages of MacUser (yeah!) and MacWorld, as I used my Performa 400 to “go online” with a 14.4k modem. Good times, good times. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I remember some clone Mac back then. Wanted one but of corse couldn’t afford it. Good story. Remember loving first Mac classic back in days and remember buying magazines to read about Mac and Mac clones. Do wish Apple would go back clones Mac’s. But we know that never happen and hell would freeze over before that ever happens. Lol, good video. :)
The Power PC was a collaboration between Apple, IBM, and Motorola. From that relationship, Motorola had its own clone called the StarMax. I had a Motorola StarMax 4000 from either 1996 or 97.
@@charlessale409 I was still at school, science levels, we did need to projects on all new systems Apple, IBM and Motorola did PowerPC, HP Oracle and intel did itanium alliance. AMD64 is that itanium project now, they legally changed it's name, forced? IBM POWER10, on NVlink support! Espresso, PowerPC Nintendo Wii chip, replaced by Tegra now. Kick intel, ARM! ARM did what it needed to do, old Acorn designs, Archimedes! RISC is the low power they needed for mobile internet apps!
@@lucasrem itanium pretty dead now.. that real 64 proc compare to these day x86x64. Itanium in my last time very annoyance because the last os official is red hat.
The main reason I love your channel is because you often do videos about Apple's history and also because you wear amazing watches! Keep up the great work!
Wow, that’s a blast from the past! I started my official freelance career and a power computing tower and had kind of forgotten about them! It was a quite good machine at the time and definitely allowed me to get into the design world, though I quickly transitioned back to a real Mac and have been there ever since. Thanks for sharing that bit of apple history!
I own a UMAX SuperMac s900 that I plan on filming once I fix the SCSI HDD setup in it... interesting machine, looks and feels like a late 90s Dell Dimension on the outside and a Power Macintosh 8600/9600 on the inside
I had a Power Computing tower. I don’t remember the model. It was was my home office machine and I was very happy with it. I also had several Macs I used for audio and video production work.
I remember this time. I actually owned a few pre-PowerPC and early PowerPC Apples. Prior to Power Computer being picked up by Apple, I was eyeing if memory serves me an 8-CPU mini-tower they offered. I think at the time, I owned a PowerPC 7100, 7200, and 7600. A lot of people don't know about Gates interest in Apple during that time.
I got one of these in 1996 when i was in college for Graphic Design. It was awesome. Upgraded it a few years later to a 450 G3 with a newer tech processor upgrade.
I was a Beos Developer back then and our standard machines where the 7000 series desktops. The last we bought, still own is the 7600. It originally came with a 604e cpu, 8mb ram 2.1 gb SCSI drive. Within weeks we upgraded it to 16mb of ram. That was a lot of ram back in them days. But now it sits with a massive 256 mb of ram and a G3 333 accelerator. Runs Mac os 7.6.1 and BeOS 5.0 beautifully.
In 2000 and 2001, I taught A-Plus and N=Plus courses for our high school vocational department. We acquired a dozen Mac clones for the A-Plus class. They were easy to assemble and because Mac OS liked SCSI, we were able to integrate aspects not normally found in PCs of the period. I developed my fondness for Apple during that time.
Super video.. very specific but important part of the history of such a big company... Loved the end credits.. that song is gonna be stuck in my mind for the entire day..
I grew up using a Radius 100 running System 7.5 and I remember buying and upgrading to System 8! It was a wonderful machine with a cartridge loader CD Drive!
I purchased a Umax S-900 to replace my Apple Power PC 6100(Pizza Box) that I had purchased after graduating college. The Umax was HUGE compared to the 6100,and had so much expandability I never did run out of space inside. It was powered by DUAL 250 MHz CPU's and 50 Mhz busThe outside of the case looked pretty sharp too, at least for a PC. Funny thing though, Quinn mentioned Power Computing was the only company allowed to update to system 8. But I'm sure I was running system 8 in this Umax computer until I finally upgraded.
The company I worked for at the time had a Powertower Pro as well as a model of the Motorola clone. The Power computing machine was a beast at the time. The processor being on a card made it super easy to upgrade. I believe by the time we got rid of them, we had bumped them up to G3's or G4's using Sonnettech cards.
Yeah, I remember using some clones at the IKEA catalogue dept back in the 90s. Remember them saying that it packed a lot more power for the money. But I didn't really learn about the clone program until years later. I remember that they were developing ways to render furniture with different fabrics so they didn't have to take photos of all of them. Quite cutting edge for the time. And the clones were used in that.
I never owned one, but we did want to get one., mostly for the upgrade-ability you mentioned. At the time, our home Macs were a black and white Classic, a Quadra 630, and at some point around the release of System 8, PPC 9600. Both of the latter, my mom got as they were de-commissioned from her then job.
I've been a graphic designer since 1980 B.C - Before Computrers. And in the late 90's the company I worked for deployed a fleet of Power Computing machines. They were stout, modular, and worked pretty good, and were reasonably cost effective for the company. That ended with the iMac era, and they were one by one retired. I also recall that the first thing I did when I was isussed a Power Mac G3, was drop the Hockey Puck into my desk drawer, and scoot down to Staples and buy a Logitec standard 2-button mouse with a thumbwheel.
I was in college when this came about and our computer lab had Macs, Power Computing and UMAX versions of licensed Macs all side-by-side. When I got my first Mac on their student program I went with the PowerMac 7100/66.
One of the most accurate portrayals of the 2 tech companies, for a dramatized movie. But it's still fiction. All of these people were colleagues in an industry that really didn't exist yet. Gates and Jobs just happened to stick to this industry the longest.
@@riopato2009 Woz endorsed the film. The Director and writer of the film stated that Woz flew out to the filming and made several points about it of how accurate the film was to what happened.
Specing out a Mac Clone was all the rage amongst us "Desktop Publishers" at the time. Tiger Direct, MacMall catalogs were highly earmarked. But the hardware changed so fast, you couldn't keep up unless you had a corporate buying account. Finally getting that PowerPC accelerated chip and 16mb of RAM was going to keep us "set" for awhile. At least we thought at the time.
When I was in college I had a Macintosh Emulator card for the Amiga computer called Emplant. Later on, ShapeShifter (software only Mac emulator) was released and that was a game-changer.
Never owned one but was looking closely on them at the time. In addition of PowerComputing, there was also UMAX, Daystar, Radius and even Motorola with their StarMax lineup. Then came some even cheaper ones such as APS. Strangely, none of them was also a Windows PC manufacturer. Maybe because of the licence terms excluding those. I think DELL wanted to make some but was never given a licence. When Jobs came back to Apple, the ecosystem was clearly there. I finally stuck with a 7100 to which I've added a few upgrades, before moving to the PowerBook G3.
I was living in Austin around 96-98 and actually designed a couple of powercomputing ads for Macworld mag. Eventually later in 1998, a friend of mine in customer service at powercomputing, gave me a power tower pro 250 that had a bad drive. Eventually became my main machine until the power supply gave out in 2000. They were great machines and it was interesting to see the demise of the Mac clones happening in real-time.
I love videos like these that take the viewer back in time to a period of history that not many people know about. I didn't know this video reached 10 minutes until I read the comments after I finished watching the video; I was so engrossed by the video that 10 minutes felt like half of that. Nice job, Quinn! :)
i have a Motorola Starmax clone sitting on my desk as i watch this video! i actually use it regularly, alongside several other (official) powermacs i own.
I did know about the clones. In grad school, my class first used tower clones....before then they upgraded to G4 graphite towers (and the first time I used OS X). One note about Microsoft Basic: it was really ground breaking for home PCs, as previously, different computer systems could have different forms of Basic (that would be incompatible with one another). The Radio Shack TRS-80 was the most popular 8-bit computer before IBM (in terms of unit sales), followed by Apple, Commodore, and Atari 8-bit systems. At that time, "homebrew" gatherings and magazines were popular for getting your own software (by reading printed code and trying to hand type on your computer). Having a form of Basic that had interpreters for different computer architectures, just meant that you didn't have to know if there would be certain functions you'd have to change for your architecture, and every line of code could be identical. If you'd like to learn more about the history of computing, I think it's great that you can find comprehensive TV series that aired during the era of the home PC is available on the internet (Computer Chronicles). When it comes to CPUs being on expansion boards, it seems it was really popular during the 286 and 386 era (the arguement was that you could turn your old 286 to brand new 386, or even later 486). Of course the changes in bus architecture (if new interfaces and memory speeds) were a hindsight. Also when it comes to the relationship of Apple to Microsoft....I seem to remember another time that was when Jobs came back to Apple, and during a launch, did have Bill Gates come on the main screen to talk about a partnership with Office products (and this was after WIndows 95 launch/more die hard camps of PC vs Mac). I remember in the video you can hear boos in the crowd, but Steve Jobs trying to calm them and explaining the improvements with Microsoft products. I'm now agnostic with PC formats (having both Windows and Mac)....I do like the integration of Office 365 on my PCs and Macs
I did, in fact, own a Mac clone at one point. I couldn't even tell you which brand it was now, though. It's gone and I have some regret about that. While on the topic, I remember looking at clones in catalogues back in yonder days and wishing I could get one (I was too young to afford anything like that at the time). I especially wanted the Motorola StarMax 5000. Ironically, I can't seem to get one now, either, as I never see them for sale on Ebay.
Back when I had the choice of clones, I bought my designer an affordable UMax because it beat Apple on Price. Meanwhile the Power Computing clones were beating Apple on build quality. It was wise of Apple to revoke those licenses and get back on course! The year Microsoft committed to keep Office going on the Mac was also the year Jobs retook the helm, and everyone knew it would be a turning-point. To keep their computer line thriving today Apple needs to keep refining their design aesthetic and stay a step ahead of the Hackintoshes at the magic price-point. After all, Apple has the best Unix desktop in the world, and when paired with their hardware the user experience is second-to-none. It's a testament to their engineers that people still accept a Hardware/OS bundle even on the cusp of 2020.
Apple didn't sell the clones... rather, Apple licensed MacOS to clone manufacturers like PowerComputing and Motorola to use on their own computers. Though Apple did have the "Tanzania" motherboards that some clone manufacturers used.
I had a Motorola Starmax 3000 / 160 (I think that's what it was called). It was my 2nd MacOS machine, my first being a PowerMac 6100/60. I used to run Logic & Deck II, and even had it SMPTEd to my old Atari ST for MIDI. I still use Macs to this day for music, as well as software development.
I used to work for Motorola Computer Group in ‘95-00 . We built and serviced the StarMax computers for System 7 and was nearly devastated by the yanking of licensing Jobs pulled. We built from the ground up, those machines, main boards, SCSI controllers, etc. Many feeder businesses died that year.
Most people seem to forget (or never knew) that when Apple started its big business initiative in 1985 and introduced the Apple LaserWriter and about the time Aldus PageMaker was first released, Microsoft released two new business programs for the Macintosh (as we still called it back then), Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, which took full advantage of the mouse and windows. At the time, the comparable programs on the PC (running MS-DOS) were WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. These were well entrenched in the corporate world, but when people learned about the ease of use and the professional results of these new Microsoft programs they wanted them! My very favorite Macintosh commercial is from this time. I downloaded it from UA-cam but I can't find it on here now (UA-cam videos go away??!!). It's called "The Pitch" and I literally fell on the floor laughing when I first saw it on TV...and they never even mention the name of the product! You'll recognize it when the corporate officers say "Your presentation was impressive, but...there's a problem'" Microsoft finally came out with versions of Word and Excel for the PC but the install was complicated (I got to do this to several computers in our office) because first you had to install a Windows 2.04 'life-support' system that would only launch when either of these programs launched to support the mouse and windows these programs depended on. In this way DOS users were dragged, kicking and screaming, into Microsoft Windows. It wasn't until Windows 3.0 came out as a complete GUI that Apple sued Microsoft over "look and feel." Apple was a bit more successful in its suit against Digital Research's GEM (Graphical Environment Manager). I was using an AtariST ("Jackintosh") which used this system but it was burned into the ROMs before Apple's lawsuit. The PC version had to have its windows extend all the way across the screen and there was some equally obnoxious requirement for menus. GEM was never popular on the PC and Digital Research went out of business. My wife and I had a thriving graphic design/desktop publishing business back when that was still a thing. We used the Macintosh because it was just better for graphic design than the PC, with its Trinitron display and 72 ppi screen--I mean it was PostScript perfect. Photoshop was only available on the Mac, not available on the PC until version 2.5. We always knew the Mac clone effort was a loser, though the clone makers (I only remember initially three and then two of any prominence and I can't remember the names of those other two) sure showed where Apple was coming up short. It only accentuated the various ways Apple was "doomed" at this time. Then Corel Draw was released for the PC and suddenly Everyone was a 'graphic designer.' :-/ BTW, that clone looks a lot like the Macintosh Performa 638 I upgraded to about this time.
The Mac clones as well as the tower based Power Macs from 1996 onwards was using CHRP - the hardware design that replicated the PC ATX case factor for computers that were using RISC based technologies that still needed its proprietary components, but open enough to lower production costs. Sun and I think other IBM workstation class machines used the CHRP design.
Apple lost the lawsuit, because Microsoft had not broken their contract, but have bought a small company which have invented Windows. It was a then called "Gem Dos" operating system and run on one of the many 8 bit machines (Schneider) at the time. Gem Dos was capable of multitasking already and had exactly the same features of Windows 1.0 ... which had all but multitasking, though. That came "back" with the 80286 processor and was briefly dropped with the 80386 and some subversion of Windows 2.0.
Yup, I knew about Power Computing. Did you know about PsyStar or Que? I don't know if I spelled their names correctly but they were licensing Mac OS as well for a while and sold hackintosh PCs. Now, it is for us that wish to tinker on our own machine. Truthfully though, I prefer an actual Mac PC. They are better and very well engineered. Yes, go ahead and start with the latest MacBook Pro rants. I know but most of their hardware is very well made and beautiful. Thank you, Quinn.
Our school back in the 1990s had Macs and Power Computing ironically. The Mac OS is all we've ever known back then. It was only in the late 1990s when they switched to the *cheaper* IBM PCs, Gateways & Compaqs running Windows and they started offering Microsoft word processing, spreadsheet, etc. classes as an elective. And for our Computer Science teachers and IT it became easier for them to network computers and printers from class to class.
ViciousDave4Life Illegal? Technically. Violates EULA, but what actual crime is being committed? Fraud? Piracy? MacOS is free on most Macs (paid updates not-withstanding). If you own a license to MacOS on a legit Mac, but want better hardware or virtualized environments for safety/multitasking ease, why can’t you run it in that manner? It’s only a violation of the EULA, the punishment of which is.... you don’t get to use the software? That’s not really a crime in a court. If you have a legal precedence for that though, I want to see it.
I owned a Power Computing Mac which I used for pro music production. I can’t remember anything except that I totally loved it. I was crushed when they were discontinued.
Apple did actually "sell" a Hackintosh. It was called the Apple Developer Transition Kit, and it was a bog-standard Pentium 4 machine inside a PowerMac G5 case. It was made, as its name implies, to help developers transition to Intel CPUs. Core CPUs weren't yet available for the general public at the time, so a Pentium 4 was the next best thing they could put in it. The machines were supposed to be shipped back to Apple in 2006, but some are still floating around.
I had a Powerbase 240 which I used until 2005. I remember adding a processor boosting daughter card so I could render custom models quicker for Escape Velocity using Mechanisto.
SvD KILLSWITCH John Sculley you meant, the Pepsi suga water CEO, he kicked Jobs out, uncontrollable.... Sony needed a long time agreement, before they are willing to invest , not getting any processes, so they never invested in developing any Vaio Mac OS gear. This was before the Next deals with Jobs! I was at Commodore Escom back then, we were trying to get some deals too, same results....Never any Commodore products on Mac OS....
Oh wow... I'd completely forgotten about PowerComputing. I had one of them. It was my third home PC. Lasted about a month before it overheated and went pop.
I remember those Hackintosh computers but never had one. I started working on Macs back in 1993 and used to use a Power PC with a mono screen in a small smoke filled studio 😀
I still have a 225 PowerComputing Tower. I bought it in the Netherlands. It still runs.. Twenty years later. So how’s that for quality? You must not forget Macs were very expensive. $ 2.000 in 1996 was worth a lot more than now. For me, a few hundred less was a welcome discount. A lot of people have bad experiences with them but the reality is that Apple hardware wasn’t exactly perfect either. It worked fine. It didn’t need a special version of the OS either AFAIK. I updated it several times. It was NOT limited to system 7! As you can see online it went up to system 9. I have very good memories of it.
I owned two secondhand Radius 81/110 towers with Media 100 video editing equipment. HEAVY metal cases. I maxed out the RAM (265 meg) on one using IBM 72 pin SIMMs and a PDS video card. How about a video on the "Power Express" Macintosh G3 that was ready to go into production when Steve came back and killed it? For the first time a Macintosh would have been equipped with a wide SCSI interface and various other hardware never seen on any Mac that went to production.
Those were exciting times, as fear of Apple going under were present. I had purchased a UMAX SuperMac clone back in 1996, I believe. They were short lived though, and I soon upgraded to a Power Macintosh 8600 before heading off to college!
Ah memories! My first computer was a Power Wave 120. I eventually maxed the ram and upgraded the CPU daughter card to a G3. It was a great company. One thing I remember - not mentioned here, was that Power Computing top end boxes surpassed Wintel boxes, temporarily putting apple on top - needs verification. Secondly, I remember that the top boxes of Power Computing were beating the Apple top end boxes. I remember reading articles that Apple then tried to get all the clones to do low end boxes, leaving the high end to Apple - this too needs verification. Anyway, wished I had found a way to keep that first computer. ☹️
probably your best video yet... and I remember having a few Clone Macs in the computer shop I worked at in high school. They were off-lease machines from design firms and had all the A/V cards installed. They were still better at crunching SD video than Windows Xp machines lol
My buddy in middle school had a few of these non-Apple macs. They were solid machines. I always wanted one, now I have a Hackintosh, which I guess is fitting.
I've only seen one clone ever. I was installing a cable modem for a customer back in 1999 I think and somebody had one of these old machines. we look all over for an ISA card that would work in the machine. had to find drivers... I cant remember if we got it to work. Think they had an older version of OS7 that didn't support TCP/IP well.
Thanks YT for finally pointing me to this video! I was shocked when you said that system you have came with 8 megs of RAM, previous owner upgraded to 82 megs, and it could be packed with a whopping (for the time) 512 megs! That's like if a prebuilt system today came with 8 gigs of RAM stock, but could go to a massive 512 gigs, without needing expensive HEDT/Server-grade hardware (namely motherboard, CPU & RAM sticks themselves).
In college I had a Mac clone made by UMAX. It was a fantastic beast of a machine and ran great. Over the years I was able to upgrade it several times with additional RAM and even a new CPU daughtercard. After OS upgrades became problematic I used it to run PPC Linux.
I worked at a company back in the 90s that had many of these Mac clones in the graphic design department. I remember them saying they were cheaper. They also said they were less reliable, as well.
Terrific story man, never heard of this one...
Thanks so much, Austin! 🙏
Whoa, Austin! 😱
Edit: I’m pretty sure I mixed Performas with LCs, because “LC” stood for “Learning (Center?),” or some other “C-word.”
(Please, fellow folks, be mindful that Austin is hanging, on this thread (but not in _that_ way), and try to hold back from elucidating, with any inappropriate “C-word” abbreviation clarifications... )
AUSSSSTIN
H E Y G U Y S !
I was a Product Lead for Power Computing during 1995-1999l I loved that company. Though I would not call myself a Mac Guy, since during my tech years I was a window , unix, and Mac admin.... I had so much fun during my time. :-) (1998 - 1999 we maintained our Power Computing brand while Apple devoured our little company. )
"...which made system upgrades a piece of cake"
*Tim Cook has left the chat*
i touch you
Uuuh Tim Cook wasn't too high in the company at that point in time (should he have been working there at all).
@@ShiggitayMediaProductions I'm referring to the state of Apple right now under Tim Cook
Tim Cooks response "But the new Mac Pro is upgradable, just cost $8000 and we'll only release updates every 6 years forcing you to upgrade yourself".
@@dr.wernerbrandes2991 Steve Jobs' Apple > Tim Cook's Apple
Yeah, I owned one of these. Bought one of their Tower Floor Standing Units. It rivaled the PowerMac 9600.
My community college-owned several of those, I remember our computer club disassembling one after hours heehee
I also had a Power Computing tower. It was a good machine for the time.
Where did you buy it? I had the second Mac and had to use it for the next 10 years until it died.
@@Flojoe6274 I got mine by mail order through Mac Warehouse.
Power Computing as a stand alone unit were ok but trying get them to work with other macs or Mac accessories such as high end scanners were a bastard due to their non Mac interface architecture, we had 2 in our studio but after struggling with them for 18 months we binned them to buy Mac quadras
Well I just found my new ringtone
Your poor phone...
The Trammell Oh boy
Waiting for a bootloop...
ok
The Trammell I wonder if Arnie had this playing in the helicopterplane thing at the end of The 7th Day as he boated off the South American
Actually, Steve Jobs almost licensed Mac OS to Sony's VAIO laptops.
He was so impressed by the hardware quality of VAIO.
Great video man!
I think the real reason behind that would be to promote the new OS as "Sony recommended" as back in the day people used to actually prefer their stuff being high quality and pretty and not trendy. So having Mac OS 8, a piece of garbage software at the time made by a small failing company, endorsed by the greatest in the tech industry (or any Japanese/ European company for that matter) would lift Apple out of obscurity and make an american company trustworthy for pretty much the first time in the EU and Japan. However at the time Windows 95 was way ahead of Mac OS 8 in performance, stability and user friendliness, a situation that wouldn't reverse until Mac OS X Panther/ Windows XP. On a sidenote, why wouldn't he be impressed? My first proper computer was the 2005 VAIO S13. Believe it or not, my father still uses it to this day in his office (he is a doctor). Now try that with the equivalent Powerbook G4 12" which by the way is considerably thicker and heavier!
Wow, no kidding! Thought you were joking because Sony VAIOs seem to be pretty shit these days.
@@Ben.N Sony still make VAIOs? I tought they selled the license years ago.
@@Juanknes VAIO is an independent company now, Sony got rid of it a few years back.
I'm not surprised, now that I consider how exceptional Sony's hardware was back then. Those old Vaios were both solid and sleek: trademark characteristics of Apple's laptops in the years following Jobs' return to Apple. It feels kind of good to know that there were other manufacturers who cared as much as Apple had about quality hardware.
That was the most convenient thing to have in order to get you to 10 mins, lol. Bravo.
One interesting detail: Steve Jobs never actually "killed" the licensing program for the Mac clones. The licensing agreement was for the clones to run "Macintosh System 7". So within about a month of Steve Jobs returning to Apple, the operating system update that was slated for mid-1997 and originally going to be called "7.7" was renamed "Mac OS 8", and that was the effective end of the licensing agreement.
Also I believe Power Computing was one of a very few (if not the only) manufacturer to sell computers that would run BeOS (dual-boot configurations). At that time (1996-97) BeOS looked like a vision of the future compared to the then antiquated Macintosh System 7.X.
I believe your shirt was from Macworld 1997 (pretty sure Power Computing wasn't in business yet in early 1995, they appeared later that year). Macworld 1997 was Power Computing's last real hurrah, they had a bigger presence than Apple that year, and were running a "military" style campaign featuring shirts like yours, camo pants, and staffers driving around the streets of San Francisco in logo-ed Hummers. Very soon after that came the news about "Mac OS 8" and the story of Power Computing and "Mac Clones" came to a speedy conclusion.
The greedy clone makers took advantage of Apple and in doing so, ended their entire business. If they'd produced lower end macs, they might have grown the market as intended and survived. But they went for the high end, taking up the limited supplied of PPC chips and cutting directly into Apple's most valuable sales.
They used the cheapest components available while also getting the fastest PPCs to market before Apple; the results were predictable.
@@kirishima638 Power Computing and the other "Mac Clone" manufacturers were selling a variety of systems, not just high end. But in this era Apple's development process was slowing down, and these smaller companies lacking Apple's management issues were able to get new machines to market much faster. There was a great deal of frustration with how long Apple was taking getting new 604-based machines to market, so a lot of "power users" were easily tempted by Power Computing offering that hardware for sale.
Apple itself was doing some really "cheap" crap with the "consumer"/"education" focused machines in this era...some of the all-in-one "Performa" machines were technological horror shows. 32 bit CPU's hobbled by slower internal 16-bit busses was a common mid-90's scenario, for just one example.
At any rate, I can't see any reason that Mac clone manufacturers producing exclusively "lower end Macs" would have had any effect at all on Steve Jobs' decision.
@@SFDJMark Oh I'm well aware of the garbage Apple was putting out. Pretty much anything with a 4xxx, 5xxx or 6xxx model number was underpowered or crippled in some way. No dispute there. Absolute shit.
Apple basically had three CPU architectures back then; the decent but old 601, the low/power 603 which Apple used without a cache and on mbos designed for the 68040, and the top end 604.
The whole industry was obsessed with Mhz and the only chips that could be run at faster rates were the 603 and 604. That said, the cloners could have made better 601 and 603 based machines instead of syphoning off the limited supply of 604s. They could have been competitive without cutting directly into Apple's lifeblood.
If it wasn't for the System 7 clause in the contract, the cloners would have killed the entire platform.
3:52 damn Jobs looks fukking happy to have MS on his side 😂
Gawd you’re young! In 1996, I graduated high school! 🤣
But I watched this era unfold in the pages of MacUser (yeah!) and MacWorld, as I used my Performa 400 to “go online” with a 14.4k modem. Good times, good times. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I remember some clone Mac back then. Wanted one but of corse couldn’t afford it. Good story. Remember loving first Mac classic back in days and remember buying magazines to read about Mac and Mac clones.
Do wish Apple would go back clones Mac’s. But we know that never happen and hell would freeze over before that ever happens. Lol, good video. :)
My first “Mac” was a Motorola Starmax 5500 rocking a 200Mhz PowerPC 604e. I had a blast playing Unreal with a hacked Diamond Monster 3D.
The Power PC was a collaboration between Apple, IBM, and Motorola. From that relationship, Motorola had its own clone called the StarMax. I had a Motorola StarMax 4000 from either 1996 or 97.
back in tha day, we used to refer to this period as the Clone Wars.
I still have my Power Computing PowerTower Pro 225 stored away somewhere! It was a great machine.
Those old Power Computing advertisements are still so sick. 'LETS KICK INTEL'S ASS!'
@@charlessale409
I was still at school, science levels, we did need to projects on all new systems
Apple, IBM and Motorola did PowerPC, HP Oracle and intel did itanium alliance.
AMD64 is that itanium project now, they legally changed it's name, forced?
IBM POWER10, on NVlink support!
Espresso, PowerPC Nintendo Wii chip, replaced by Tegra now.
Kick intel, ARM! ARM did what it needed to do, old Acorn designs, Archimedes! RISC is the low power they needed for mobile internet apps!
@@lucasrem itanium pretty dead now.. that real 64 proc compare to these day x86x64. Itanium in my last time very annoyance because the last os official is red hat.
The main reason I love your channel is because you often do videos about Apple's history and also because you wear amazing watches! Keep up the great work!
Thanks!!
Love how you summarised the history of early Bill Gates and Steve Jobs partnership.
"partnership"
Remember when Sears sold a licensed Apple //c clone?
NO. I just remember sears licening Winnin the pooh for kids clothes. That was my wardrobe growing up
I had the Sears version of the Intellivision
Thanks for showing us that internal video at the end, it was hilarious! (9:26)
Nobody:
Guy at 9:44: “the heat from Pentium warms a mid sized town”
A G5 warms a mid sized country
Alexandre Couture And an (Intel) i5 warms a mid sized planet
That internal "I think we're a clone now" is certainly a BOPPP!!
Wow, that’s a blast from the past! I started my official freelance career and a power computing tower and had kind of forgotten about them! It was a quite good machine at the time and definitely allowed me to get into the design world, though I quickly transitioned back to a real Mac and have been there ever since. Thanks for sharing that bit of apple history!
I own a UMAX SuperMac s900 that I plan on filming once I fix the SCSI HDD setup in it... interesting machine, looks and feels like a late 90s Dell Dimension on the outside and a Power Macintosh 8600/9600 on the inside
I had a Power Computing tower. I don’t remember the model. It was was my home office machine and I was very happy with it. I also had several Macs I used for audio and video production work.
I remember this time. I actually owned a few pre-PowerPC and early PowerPC Apples. Prior to Power Computer being picked up by Apple, I was eyeing if memory serves me an 8-CPU mini-tower they offered. I think at the time, I owned a PowerPC 7100, 7200, and 7600. A lot of people don't know about Gates interest in Apple during that time.
"My 3rd birthday in 1996" - oh God, I'm old.
"My 21st birthday in 1996" - oh God, I´m dead!
My first.. yup.. I feel old
@@classicalisious6256 Hahahahah
Yeah but on the other side: Quinn is 27? I assumed he was in his 30s
lol ikr that was so unexpected... he really doesn't look like 26
Your video reminded me of the Pirates of the Silicon Valley movie - I need to watch it again now
Best Jobs movie there is.
I got one of these in 1996 when i was in college for Graphic Design. It was awesome. Upgraded it a few years later to a 450 G3 with a newer tech processor upgrade.
Wow this is interesting
Pystar is even weirder....
I was a Beos Developer back then and our standard machines where the 7000 series desktops. The last we bought, still own is the 7600. It originally came with a 604e cpu, 8mb ram 2.1 gb SCSI drive. Within weeks we upgraded it to 16mb of ram. That was a lot of ram back in them days. But now it sits with a massive 256 mb of ram and a G3 333 accelerator. Runs Mac os 7.6.1 and BeOS 5.0 beautifully.
In 2000 and 2001, I taught A-Plus and N=Plus courses for our high school vocational department. We acquired a dozen Mac clones for the A-Plus class. They were easy to assemble and because Mac OS liked SCSI, we were able to integrate aspects not normally found in PCs of the period. I developed my fondness for Apple during that time.
Snazzy Labs has been one of my favorite channels lately! Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much, Luis!
this is miles better than any history lecture i’ve ever listened to.
Super video.. very specific but important part of the history of such a big company... Loved the end credits.. that song is gonna be stuck in my mind for the entire day..
I grew up using a Radius 100 running System 7.5 and I remember buying and upgrading to System 8! It was a wonderful machine with a cartridge loader CD Drive!
I purchased a Umax S-900 to replace my Apple Power PC 6100(Pizza Box) that I had purchased after graduating college. The Umax was HUGE compared to the 6100,and had so much expandability I never did run out of space inside. It was powered by DUAL 250 MHz CPU's and 50 Mhz busThe outside of the case looked pretty sharp too, at least for a PC. Funny thing though, Quinn mentioned Power Computing was the only company allowed to update to system 8. But I'm sure I was running system 8 in this Umax computer until I finally upgraded.
The company I worked for at the time had a Powertower Pro as well as a model of the Motorola clone. The Power computing machine was a beast at the time. The processor being on a card made it super easy to upgrade. I believe by the time we got rid of them, we had bumped them up to G3's or G4's using Sonnettech cards.
My college had these and I loved them. They were super fast.
Yeah, I remember using some clones at the IKEA catalogue dept back in the 90s. Remember them saying that it packed a lot more power for the money. But I didn't really learn about the clone program until years later.
I remember that they were developing ways to render furniture with different fabrics so they didn't have to take photos of all of them. Quite cutting edge for the time. And the clones were used in that.
Then: People: 8 Megabytes of ram is okay
Now: People: 8 Gigabytes of ram is okay
Future: People: 8 Terabytes of ram is okay
Your comment is the dumper than any other dump comment
The far future "640 terabytes of RAM should be enough for anyone."
Ultra mega future: 8 petabyte is enough for everyone
my first home computer was a ZX81 with 1 KB RAM (1981) :-) oh sh*t - getting old :-(
@. you may need more RAM
wow i did not know this thanks for the history lesson. :)
Thanks again for a great video! I’ve learnt something new today, I never knew that history about Apple. Hope your keeping well Quinn!
I never owned one, but we did want to get one., mostly for the upgrade-ability you mentioned. At the time, our home Macs were a black and white Classic, a Quadra 630, and at some point around the release of System 8, PPC 9600. Both of the latter, my mom got as they were de-commissioned from her then job.
I've been a graphic designer since 1980 B.C - Before Computrers. And in the late 90's the company I worked for deployed a fleet of Power Computing machines. They were stout, modular, and worked pretty good, and were reasonably cost effective for the company. That ended with the iMac era, and they were one by one retired. I also recall that the first thing I did when I was isussed a Power Mac G3, was drop the Hockey Puck into my desk drawer, and scoot down to Staples and buy a Logitec standard 2-button mouse with a thumbwheel.
I was in college when this came about and our computer lab had Macs, Power Computing and UMAX versions of licensed Macs all side-by-side. When I got my first Mac on their student program I went with the PowerMac 7100/66.
3:14 Every single person should watch this movie.
"Pirates Of Silicon Valley"
People always talking about the modern movies, but this is the real deal. To bad it never got an HD release.
Definitely a dry movie but it’s definitely a good one also.
One of the most accurate portrayals of the 2 tech companies, for a dramatized movie. But it's still fiction. All of these people were colleagues in an industry that really didn't exist yet. Gates and Jobs just happened to stick to this industry the longest.
@@riopato2009 Woz endorsed the film. The Director and writer of the film stated that Woz flew out to the filming and made several points about it of how accurate the film was to what happened.
Specing out a Mac Clone was all the rage amongst us "Desktop Publishers" at the time. Tiger Direct, MacMall catalogs were highly earmarked. But the hardware changed so fast, you couldn't keep up unless you had a corporate buying account. Finally getting that PowerPC accelerated chip and 16mb of RAM was going to keep us "set" for awhile. At least we thought at the time.
When I was in college I had a Macintosh Emulator card for the Amiga computer called Emplant. Later on, ShapeShifter (software only Mac emulator) was released and that was a game-changer.
Never owned one but was looking closely on them at the time. In addition of PowerComputing, there was also UMAX, Daystar, Radius and even Motorola with their StarMax lineup. Then came some even cheaper ones such as APS. Strangely, none of them was also a Windows PC manufacturer. Maybe because of the licence terms excluding those. I think DELL wanted to make some but was never given a licence. When Jobs came back to Apple, the ecosystem was clearly there. I finally stuck with a 7100 to which I've added a few upgrades, before moving to the PowerBook G3.
I was living in Austin around 96-98 and actually designed a couple of powercomputing ads for Macworld mag. Eventually later in 1998, a friend of mine in customer service at powercomputing, gave me a power tower pro 250 that had a bad drive. Eventually became my main machine until the power supply gave out in 2000. They were great machines and it was interesting to see the demise of the Mac clones happening in real-time.
very good job finding this information! I didn't know how interesting it would be!
I love videos like these that take the viewer back in time to a period of history that not many people know about. I didn't know this video reached 10 minutes until I read the comments after I finished watching the video; I was so engrossed by the video that 10 minutes felt like half of that. Nice job, Quinn! :)
Thanks so much, dude!
Wow. I only finally junked my old UMax Power PC SuperMac when I moved house a few years ago. great tower at the time, with PCI slots!
Great video! I saw a few of these around the office wwaaaayyy back when. Great hear about where they came from and a bit if computing history.
I love the new format. Keep it up!
i have a Motorola Starmax clone sitting on my desk as i watch this video! i actually use it regularly, alongside several other (official) powermacs i own.
If you haven't done it already, you should do a video about BeOS. The PPC based operating system that almost became OS X.
Great suggestion! Thanks.
I second that. BeOS was so good. Ran it on my StarMax
First of all; more if this type of content. This was really good.
Second; where can we get more of these “internal” videos?! That was fantastic!
I did know about the clones. In grad school, my class first used tower clones....before then they upgraded to G4 graphite towers (and the first time I used OS X). One note about Microsoft Basic: it was really ground breaking for home PCs, as previously, different computer systems could have different forms of Basic (that would be incompatible with one another). The Radio Shack TRS-80 was the most popular 8-bit computer before IBM (in terms of unit sales), followed by Apple, Commodore, and Atari 8-bit systems. At that time, "homebrew" gatherings and magazines were popular for getting your own software (by reading printed code and trying to hand type on your computer). Having a form of Basic that had interpreters for different computer architectures, just meant that you didn't have to know if there would be certain functions you'd have to change for your architecture, and every line of code could be identical. If you'd like to learn more about the history of computing, I think it's great that you can find comprehensive TV series that aired during the era of the home PC is available on the internet (Computer Chronicles). When it comes to CPUs being on expansion boards, it seems it was really popular during the 286 and 386 era (the arguement was that you could turn your old 286 to brand new 386, or even later 486). Of course the changes in bus architecture (if new interfaces and memory speeds) were a hindsight. Also when it comes to the relationship of Apple to Microsoft....I seem to remember another time that was when Jobs came back to Apple, and during a launch, did have Bill Gates come on the main screen to talk about a partnership with Office products (and this was after WIndows 95 launch/more die hard camps of PC vs Mac). I remember in the video you can hear boos in the crowd, but Steve Jobs trying to calm them and explaining the improvements with Microsoft products. I'm now agnostic with PC formats (having both Windows and Mac)....I do like the integration of Office 365 on my PCs and Macs
I did, in fact, own a Mac clone at one point. I couldn't even tell you which brand it was now, though. It's gone and I have some regret about that. While on the topic, I remember looking at clones in catalogues back in yonder days and wishing I could get one (I was too young to afford anything like that at the time). I especially wanted the Motorola StarMax 5000. Ironically, I can't seem to get one now, either, as I never see them for sale on Ebay.
Back when I had the choice of clones, I bought my designer an affordable UMax because it beat Apple on Price. Meanwhile the Power Computing clones were beating Apple on build quality. It was wise of Apple to revoke those licenses and get back on course! The year Microsoft committed to keep Office going on the Mac was also the year Jobs retook the helm, and everyone knew it would be a turning-point. To keep their computer line thriving today Apple needs to keep refining their design aesthetic and stay a step ahead of the Hackintoshes at the magic price-point. After all, Apple has the best Unix desktop in the world, and when paired with their hardware the user experience is second-to-none. It's a testament to their engineers that people still accept a Hardware/OS bundle even on the cusp of 2020.
I never owned one knew, but a relative of mine got one from powercomputing from work three years ago. I now have parts of it decorating my shelves.
Apple didn't sell the clones... rather, Apple licensed MacOS to clone manufacturers like PowerComputing and Motorola to use on their own computers. Though Apple did have the "Tanzania" motherboards that some clone manufacturers used.
I had a Motorola Starmax 3000 / 160 (I think that's what it was called). It was my 2nd MacOS machine, my first being a PowerMac 6100/60. I used to run Logic & Deck II, and even had it SMPTEd to my old Atari ST for MIDI. I still use Macs to this day for music, as well as software development.
I used to work for Motorola Computer Group in ‘95-00 . We built and serviced the StarMax computers for System 7 and was nearly devastated by the yanking of licensing Jobs pulled. We built from the ground up, those machines, main boards, SCSI controllers, etc. Many feeder businesses died that year.
Most people seem to forget (or never knew) that when Apple started its big business initiative in 1985 and introduced the Apple LaserWriter and about the time Aldus PageMaker was first released, Microsoft released two new business programs for the Macintosh (as we still called it back then), Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, which took full advantage of the mouse and windows.
At the time, the comparable programs on the PC (running MS-DOS) were WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. These were well entrenched in the corporate world, but when people learned about the ease of use and the professional results of these new Microsoft programs they wanted them!
My very favorite Macintosh commercial is from this time. I downloaded it from UA-cam but I can't find it on here now (UA-cam videos go away??!!). It's called "The Pitch" and I literally fell on the floor laughing when I first saw it on TV...and they never even mention the name of the product!
You'll recognize it when the corporate officers say "Your presentation was impressive, but...there's a problem'"
Microsoft finally came out with versions of Word and Excel for the PC but the install was complicated (I got to do this to several computers in our office) because first you had to install a Windows 2.04 'life-support' system that would only launch when either of these programs launched to support the mouse and windows these programs depended on. In this way DOS users were dragged, kicking and screaming, into Microsoft Windows.
It wasn't until Windows 3.0 came out as a complete GUI that Apple sued Microsoft over "look and feel."
Apple was a bit more successful in its suit against Digital Research's GEM (Graphical Environment Manager). I was using an AtariST ("Jackintosh") which used this system but it was burned into the ROMs before Apple's lawsuit. The PC version had to have its windows extend all the way across the screen and there was some equally obnoxious requirement for menus. GEM was never popular on the PC and Digital Research went out of business.
My wife and I had a thriving graphic design/desktop publishing business back when that was still a thing. We used the Macintosh because it was just better for graphic design than the PC, with its Trinitron display and 72 ppi screen--I mean it was PostScript perfect. Photoshop was only available on the Mac, not available on the PC until version 2.5. We always knew the Mac clone effort was a loser, though the clone makers (I only remember initially three and then two of any prominence and I can't remember the names of those other two) sure showed where Apple was coming up short. It only accentuated the various ways Apple was "doomed" at this time.
Then Corel Draw was released for the PC and suddenly Everyone was a 'graphic designer.' :-/
BTW, that clone looks a lot like the Macintosh Performa 638 I upgraded to about this time.
my parents had a PowerTower Pro in 97'. It was a great machine. They used it until 2000 when they purchased an iMac G3.
Hey Snazzy, do one on my favorite Mac clone - Umax and their SuperMac line, which was my first Mac around 1097 😜
The Mac clones as well as the tower based Power Macs from 1996 onwards was using CHRP - the hardware design that replicated the PC ATX case factor for computers that were using RISC based technologies that still needed its proprietary components, but open enough to lower production costs. Sun and I think other IBM workstation class machines used the CHRP design.
I owned a Power Computing machine. My first Mac, and I loved it. I had a tower version ordered from Mac Warehouse.
Apple lost the lawsuit, because Microsoft had not broken their contract, but have bought a small company which have invented Windows. It was a then called "Gem Dos" operating system and run on one of the many 8 bit machines (Schneider) at the time. Gem Dos was capable of multitasking already and had exactly the same features of Windows 1.0 ... which had all but multitasking, though. That came "back" with the 80286 processor and was briefly dropped with the 80386 and some subversion of Windows 2.0.
Yup, I knew about Power Computing. Did you know about PsyStar or Que? I don't know if I spelled their names correctly but they were licensing Mac OS as well for a while and sold hackintosh PCs. Now, it is for us that wish to tinker on our own machine. Truthfully though, I prefer an actual Mac PC. They are better and very well engineered. Yes, go ahead and start with the latest MacBook Pro rants. I know but most of their hardware is very well made and beautiful.
Thank you, Quinn.
Our school back in the 1990s had Macs and Power Computing ironically. The Mac OS is all we've ever known back then.
It was only in the late 1990s when they switched to the *cheaper* IBM PCs, Gateways & Compaqs running Windows and they started offering Microsoft word processing, spreadsheet, etc. classes as an elective. And for our Computer Science teachers and IT it became easier for them to network computers and printers from class to class.
I had a Power Computing Power Center 150 at work which I used for software development.
hi, when is the video for an amd/ryzen hackintosh Pro coming?
yeah, a lot of his videos are based on intel, give amd some love
@ViciousDave4Life but he did tons of hackintosh and even compare them to apple's
AMD hackingtoshes require a LOT of extra work, if it's possible at all.
It's just not worth it.
ViciousDave4Life Illegal? Technically. Violates EULA, but what actual crime is being committed? Fraud? Piracy? MacOS is free on most Macs (paid updates not-withstanding). If you own a license to MacOS on a legit Mac, but want better hardware or virtualized environments for safety/multitasking ease, why can’t you run it in that manner? It’s only a violation of the EULA, the punishment of which is.... you don’t get to use the software? That’s not really a crime in a court.
If you have a legal precedence for that though, I want to see it.
ViciousDave4Life lmao like Apple cares
5:28 it’s champing at the bit, not chomping.
whats that mac clone song?
I did have a Power Computing clone that I used in 1996/1997 for professional graphic design work. It was a great experience.
I still have a sticker.
I owned a Power Computing Mac which I used for pro music production. I can’t remember anything except that I totally loved it. I was crushed when they were discontinued.
Great background research.
I remember those, I read about them in press articles of the time.
Apple did actually "sell" a Hackintosh.
It was called the Apple Developer Transition Kit, and it was a bog-standard Pentium 4 machine inside a PowerMac G5 case.
It was made, as its name implies, to help developers transition to Intel CPUs. Core CPUs weren't yet available for the general public at the time, so a Pentium 4 was the next best thing they could put in it.
The machines were supposed to be shipped back to Apple in 2006, but some are still floating around.
I had a Powerbase 240 which I used until 2005. I remember adding a processor boosting daughter card so I could render custom models quicker for Escape Velocity using Mechanisto.
I remember these machines. I didn’t own one of these but I did have a Umax S900 at one point. The clone years were pretty crazy.
This reminds me of when Apple (Jobs in particular) were looking to reach a deal with Sony to have Vaio laptops running Mac OS X.
SvD KILLSWITCH
John Sculley you meant, the Pepsi suga water CEO, he kicked Jobs out, uncontrollable....
Sony needed a long time agreement, before they are willing to invest , not getting any processes, so they never invested in developing any Vaio Mac OS gear. This was before the Next deals with Jobs!
I was at Commodore Escom back then, we were trying to get some deals too, same results....Never any Commodore products on Mac OS....
Yup, Power Computing was my first mac. Was short lived but I learned a ton from that machine.
Oh wow... I'd completely forgotten about PowerComputing. I had one of them. It was my third home PC. Lasted about a month before it overheated and went pop.
I remember those Hackintosh computers but never had one. I started working on Macs back in 1993 and used to use a Power PC with a mono screen in a small smoke filled studio 😀
I still have a 225 PowerComputing Tower. I bought it in the Netherlands. It still runs.. Twenty years later. So how’s that for quality?
You must not forget Macs were very expensive. $ 2.000 in 1996 was worth a lot more than now. For me, a few hundred less was a welcome discount.
A lot of people have bad experiences with them but the reality is that Apple hardware wasn’t exactly perfect either.
It worked fine. It didn’t need a special version of the OS either AFAIK. I updated it several times. It was NOT limited to system 7! As you can see online it went up to system 9. I have very good memories of it.
I owned two secondhand Radius 81/110 towers with Media 100 video editing equipment. HEAVY metal cases. I maxed out the RAM (265 meg) on one using IBM 72 pin SIMMs and a PDS video card.
How about a video on the "Power Express" Macintosh G3 that was ready to go into production when Steve came back and killed it? For the first time a Macintosh would have been equipped with a wide SCSI interface and various other hardware never seen on any Mac that went to production.
Love this type of video. Keep them coming
Those were exciting times, as fear of Apple going under were present. I had purchased a UMAX SuperMac clone back in 1996, I believe. They were short lived though, and I soon upgraded to a Power Macintosh 8600 before heading off to college!
Ah memories! My first computer was a Power Wave 120. I eventually maxed the ram and upgraded the CPU daughter card to a G3. It was a great company.
One thing I remember - not mentioned here, was that Power Computing top end boxes surpassed Wintel boxes, temporarily putting apple on top - needs verification.
Secondly, I remember that the top boxes of Power Computing were beating the Apple top end boxes. I remember reading articles that Apple then tried to get all the clones to do low end boxes, leaving the high end to Apple - this too needs verification.
Anyway, wished I had found a way to keep that first computer. ☹️
probably your best video yet... and I remember having a few Clone Macs in the computer shop I worked at in high school. They were off-lease machines from design firms and had all the A/V cards installed. They were still better at crunching SD video than Windows Xp machines lol
My buddy in middle school had a few of these non-Apple macs. They were solid machines. I always wanted one, now I have a Hackintosh, which I guess is fitting.
Hey I have a Umax J700 with a G4 upgrade card!!!!!! Still trying to find 1GB of RAM for it (8x128 MB) so I can run Leopard on it
I've only seen one clone ever. I was installing a cable modem for a customer back in 1999 I think and somebody had one of these old machines. we look all over for an ISA card that would work in the machine. had to find drivers... I cant remember if we got it to work. Think they had an older version of OS7 that didn't support TCP/IP well.
Thanks YT for finally pointing me to this video!
I was shocked when you said that system you have came with 8 megs of RAM, previous owner upgraded to 82 megs, and it could be packed with a whopping (for the time) 512 megs!
That's like if a prebuilt system today came with 8 gigs of RAM stock, but could go to a massive 512 gigs, without needing expensive HEDT/Server-grade hardware (namely motherboard, CPU & RAM sticks themselves).
In college I had a Mac clone made by UMAX. It was a fantastic beast of a machine and ran great. Over the years I was able to upgrade it several times with additional RAM and even a new CPU daughtercard. After OS upgrades became problematic I used it to run PPC Linux.
I worked at a company back in the 90s that had many of these Mac clones in the graphic design department. I remember them saying they were cheaper. They also said they were less reliable, as well.
I had a few systems from Power Computing. There were a great alternative from paying a premium for Macs.