The Macintosh NC (Network Computer) the first NewWorldMac

[uniserver]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_NC

Has anyone ever seen a prototype of this machine?

I guess in 1997 they borrowed tech from this for the iMac, and never released the (Mac NC)

 

[gobabushka]

i wonder if this is an accurate pic?

http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/macreleased/MacNC.html

 

[markyb86]

Is the base on that thing Bondi!?

 

[uniserver]

Thats pretty slick!

 

[mcdermd]

"Unfortunately, [Ellison] is pretty far off base," Jobs stated in an e-mail. "Maybe he is trying to deflect interest from what we are really doing."

I think Jobs was saying that Ellison was off-base in that they were not making a thin client at all. What they were making was the iMac. Ellsion was just trying to draw interest to his push for network clients on Oracle backends.

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

That does look pretty cool, IMO. Kind of wonder though, is that a touch screen?

 

[mcdermd]

That fantasy-picture is

This:

+ this:

+ this:

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Ahh. Sad to see, but the Sun unit looks kind of cool too, like if Nintendo had made the Wii in 1999. I miss the days of clear plastic.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That pic HAS TO BE FANTASY because SJ was at the helm of Apple at the time and was well known for his disdain for Portrait Displays.

I can't think of any good reason for a Network Computer with an adequate pixel count to be anything but a portrait or pivot.

 

[BlastoiseBlue]

Pivot meaning it can either be portrait or landscape by turning the screen, correct?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, Pivots made a world of sense when the mid-size CRT achieved affordable price point economies of scale and TPD prices were still in the stratosphere..

The first GUI was developed at Xerox PARC, when SJ took the tour it had a Portrait/Full Page Display. It was optimized for doing word processing. The Mac couldn't hit a salable price point with anything but the Periscope/Half Page Display in its cute little Hobbit form factor and didn't drive enough pixels for WYSWIG display in Full Page Mode.

The Lisa would have looked silly with a portrait and Spreadsheets were the killer app for business. Landscape mode it optimal for for business market machines like the Lisa and the IBM PC.

By the time the concept of Network Computers came around, there were plenty of pixels available for FPD and anyone using a lowly Network Computer would have been shuffling papers while the graphics types, engineers, movers and shakers would be working on TPDs hooked up to "real" computers with large, fast, and secure local storage.

IMO based upon casual observations and personal prejudices. [)] ]'>