What System/mac Os version are you nostalgic for.

[Steve_G]

Can be X, can be Classic, curious as to what versions you have nostalgia for.

For me it is 7.6, it was the first version i ever used in late 00/early 01 in middle school on an LC 5x0 and powermac 5260 in middle school. Prior to that i was at schools with ibm all in ones.

My 2nd favorite is oddly, 8.6 due to the same school, it showed me the current state of the OS and gave me an appreciation for the platinum theme.

 

[Crutch]

Finder 4.1 by Bruce Horn and Steve Capps. With that nice line art of the peaceful mountain scene in the About… box. It was the first Mac OS I ever used (as an 8-year-old) and still the vision conjured up by the thought of “using a Macintosh”.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Would depend upon the hardware I'm using:

68000-68030: System 6.0.x where possible (I used 6.0.4 for years)
68040: System 7.5.5 or 7.6.1
PPC (pre-G5): System 7.6.1 or 8.6
G5: Mac OS X 10.4.11 with Classic OS 9.2.2

For ultimate niche nostalgia, I'm partial to Apple A/UX 3.x on a 68040.

 

[gcp]

System 7 (7.0.1, or 7.1 - in my mind those are of the same family; 7.5 is a distinct beast).

It wasn't my earliest experience with Macs, but I thought the color treatment in System 7 was so clean, subtle, and beautiful. From the simple default desktop, to the lovely blue tint on the folders, to the nicely shaded pinstriped menu bars - the use of tiled, subtly different colors gave things such a pleasing, rich texture that was so much nicer than solid colors used on most other platforms. In my mind, that's what a color Mac looked like.

I was so excited when my dad bought an LC for home use, replacing our Mac Plus. I was so stoked to have that color experience at home. I can't express the depths of my disappointment when it booted up and.... looked like trash. It shipped with some flavor of System 6 - where color was an absolute afterthought. On top of that, we got the 12" monitor with it, so most of the color games that I was stoked to play were unsupported (because many required 640x480). I still have an irrational loathing for the Macintosh LC -- it was just such a crushing disappointment for a young kid! Apologies to any LC lovers out there!

 

[Byrd]

Mac OS 8/8.1; it added that extra cool UI and just seemed slicker than earlier versions. I tend to put it on most faster 68K Macs that support OS 8.1, see how it goes and if slow switch to 7.6.

 

[Steve_G]

Mac OS 8/8.1; it added that extra cool UI and just seemed slicker than earlier versions. I tend to put it on most faster 68K Macs that support OS 8.1, see how it goes and if slow switch to 7.6.

it also has the multi-threaded finder, so file copies no longer grind it to a screeching halt

 

[joshc]

6.0.8 for its simplicity and speed.

7.5.5/7.6.1 with the updated Jigsaw puzzle gives me warm fuzzy feelings as I used it for many years.

AtEase is an interesting one that people often forget, I messed around with that when I was a kid.

I still get a little nostalgic for 10.2 because I used it for many years as my main OS on a PowerBook G4 12" - it was the first time OS X started to feel a lot more usable to me, and I started to use the Classic environment less and less.

 

[Crutch]

it also has the multi-threaded finder, so file copies no longer grind it to a screeching halt

Though you could get that via an extension with 7.x also … SpeedyFinder7 comes to mind, but I think there were others.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Though you could get that via an extension with 7.x also … SpeedyFinder7 comes to mind, but I think there were others.

I could be wrong but I believe you could use the Finder from 8.0 on Mac OS 7.6.1. Something rings bells with me on this.

 

[joshc]

I could be wrong but I believe you could use the Finder from 8.0 on Mac OS 7.6.1. Something rings bells with me on this.

Yep

 

[MindWalker]

OS X 10.4 Tiger for me. That welcome animation!

I only used it as a main OS on my iMac G3 that I was given for free (my gateway drug to modern Macs) in late 2000's.

 

[bakkus]

Yep

Wait, tell me more about this? How?

 

[Skate323k137]

Honestly any classic MacOS, my 'Nostalgia' ends around when OSX starts. But I Most use 6.0.8, 7.1, and 9.2.x

 

[LaPorta]

7.5.3 - why? It was what came on my 6300 when it was new. Boy, was I ever excited to have my own computer for once! I set the background to that circuit board pattern. Upgrading to 7.5.5 via America Online download was also fun back when when it would take hours to download every disk!

For OS X, I agree with @joshc. I was on OS X from the beta on...10.2 was the first time that it felt stable and speedy enough to really do some work on. It ran my iMac G4 vastly faster than 10.1 (which it shipped with).

As for each machine that I have, I usually just run period-correct things: My SE has 6.0.8, IIfx has 7.1.2, PT Pro has a vast range from 7.5.5-8.6-9.1. G4 Quicksilver has 9.2.2 and 10.4.

 

[Skate323k137]

As for each machine that I have, I usually just run period-correct things

That's really the way to do it IMHO.

What's funny that I just realized is that when MacOS 8 was current, it was my go to. Now it seems I only use 6,7, and 9... except my BeOS bootloader might be on a MacOS 8 partition. It's been a while.

 

[CC_333]

I'm nostalgic for:

• System 6 (the OS my first ever 68k Mac, my SE/30, ran when I got it)
• System 7.1P (Performa 578)
• 8.1 (Norton Antivirus 5.0 CD-ROM)
• 8.5.1** (Rev. C iMac Tray Loader)
• 8.6* (PowerBook G3 Bronze Keyboard, aka Lombard)
• 9.0.x* (first gen iMac Slot Loader and clamshell iBook)
• 9.2.2* and Mac OS X 10.1.4* (first gen eMac)
• Mac OS Tiger* (Late '06 Mini, Late '06 and Mid '07 MacBook)
• Mac OS X Leopard* and Snow Leopard** (Early 2008 Mac Pro)
• Mac OS X Mavericks* (last OS X version whose UI wasn't flat and iOS-like)

*Versions I experienced when they were the current retail release. These came preinstalled on the Macs listed respectively
**Version I bought new at retail. 8.5 was the first and only new classic Mac OS version bought new; Snow Leopard was the first and only version of Mac OS X bought new, because I skipped Lion and Mountain Lion, and subsequent versions (Mavericks and later) were free.

c

 

[Pushpull76]

Uh any macintosh op sys before X

 

[Corgi]

My first Mac experience was some time in the late 90s with a Quadra running 7.5, so I'm super nostalgic for that. And somehow, both PB 1400s I have require 8.0, so I'll probably end up refurbishing one of my 5300cs laptops for that…

I do feel some amount of nostalgia for Mac OS 9, but I have a rather uninterrupted period of running it from 2008 to present so it's hard to quantify those feelings as nostalgia. It is more like a reliable friend I would never want to lose, but haven't lost, so have no reason to feel nostalgia.

On the X side… I have a really soft spot for Jaguar as it was the first X I used. My friend's Lamp G4 had it on. Sadly, she died a few years ago, but every time I boot up Jaguar on my iBook, I think of her and the stories we shared.

Tiger has some serious nostalgia as well, as not only is it the main OS I've ran on my G4 from the time I got it (it's still there today!), but it is also what got me into the Hackintosh scene when the Intel releases dropped. I was lucky enough to have the Intel reference board in my desktop PC that was used by Apple for some model of the original Intel Mac. At this point I don't remember which Mac, but I do remember the board was an Intel S5000XVN workstation board, so it was probably the MacPro1,1. It was quite easy to convince Tiger to run on it, and it was pretty funny / novel at the time to have the G4 and Intel computers side by side running the same OS.

Snow Leopard was the only OS I bought at retail (similar to CC_333 above me), so that has some nostalgia. It was nice to connect to Exchange in Mail instead of Entourage, I'll say that…

I do have fond memories of being an app developer during the Mountain Lion days, and that version of Xcode was hackable enough that I was able to ship a Really Universal Binary for 32-bit and 64-bit PowerPC and Intel using it. Huh, despite my hatred of Intels, I guess I did have some fun with them at times

I think at some point I will have nostalgia for Big Sur. I didn't have any Macs new enough to run it until the M1, so that's my first dip back into the Apple RISC Ecosystem. Right now I just remember all the "teething" issues so… not yet, haha.

 

[greystash]

System 7.6 and 8.6.
When I was just under 5yrs old my dad bought his own Power Mac 6100 and started the beginnings of his graphic design business from it. That machine was the beginning of a lot for me. I spent countless hours playing with AfterDark and some of the 'secret' game screensavers, sifting through Mac Format CDs on the painfully slow CD drive scouring through software, games, icons etc. That system and machine set me up for all of my tech skills and the career I'm now in.
8.6 was the next great system that packed so much fun into it with UI improvements, themes etc., Carbon Lib support which let me play the amazing games that came out at the time, and which I still play now!! I feel very lucky I grew up learning and having fun with these systems.

 

[lobust]

My (as in personally mine) first Mac was an SE with 6.0.8 and 7.0, so I am super nostalgic for both of those.

My first Mac experience was when my aunt bought a new Performa 630 bundle (she was a primary school teacher and there was a promotion for those at that time) and I spent countless hours at her house playing on that thing, it had 7.5 OOTB and I later upgraded it to 8 and then 8.1, so again super nostalgia for those!

Next in line would be 8.5/6 as I got through university on those with my 7100.

Lastly 10.2, as that was what my very first brand new purchased Mac (ibook 500) ran OOTB.