In the late 1980s and early 1990s, computing made a great leap forward with the advent of 16-bit microcomputers like the Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, and Atari ST. The Apple II, introduced in 1978, was a phenomenally successful platform, eventually coming to possess a 20% share of the personal computer market in the US. But by […]
Author Archives: Jason Walsh
As a computer manufacturer, Apple gets a strangely distorted press. Its position as the only serious commercial competitor to Microsoft guarantees that every move the company makes is documented – and often distorted.
Jef Raskin founded the Macintosh project at Apple, which led to the development of the Apple Mac and the popularisation of the graphical user-interface. He was Apple employee #31 and left the Macintosh team in mid-1981 after Steve Jobs took over the project.
I have recently been driving around in a new car. Well, I say new. In fact, it’s rather old.
According to Google Analytics, Low End Mac has more readers in the United Kingdom (UK) than any country outside the US, with Canada in the third position. We asked Jason Walsh, a journalist based in Ireland and a longtime Mac user, to take a look at the UK Mac market.
Readers inclined to trawl back through the Low End Mac archives may know that one of my Macs is, in fact, no such thing. It’s actually a Dell Mini 10v netbook. (See Why I Didn’t Wait for the Apple Tablet.)
Regular readers will know that I have been searching for the perfect Macintosh word processor for some time. I have almost found it.
As my regular readers will know, I am searching for the perfect writing tool. Much as I prefer to write with a good pen, I want to find writing software that is ideally suited not only to my needs but also my temperament and taste. Frankly, it’s a tall order.
Complaints about modern software being bloated and overpowered are a penny a dozen, but there is some truth in the idea.
Words are my life. They are, of course, the way I make my living, but they mean so much more to me than that. I’m no postmodernist, but Umberto Eco’s joy in language is something that speaks to me – I challenge anyone with a love of words to read The Name of the Rose […]
Can we please stop talking about “game changers”? The iPad is the future of computing. No, wait, it’s a waste of money and typically crippled product from Apple.
I have been mulling over getting a new computer for some time. It’s not so much that I needed one, more that I was dissatisfied with my current setup. Once I decided I was going ahead with the purchase, it crossed my mind more than once that I was doing this at precisely the wrong […]
It’s that time of year again when lazy journalists trundle out lists instead of sitting down and writing articles. Never one to break an honorable tradition, Jason Walsh adds Low End Mac to the list of publications that includes just about every magazine, website, and newspaper in the world.
Apple began selling its first computer in July 1976. Apple Before the Mac looks at the Apple II and Apple III era that predate the Mac.
Jason Walsh examines Scribus, an intriguing alternative to the overpriced behemoths of Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign.
Back in November, we took a quick peek at Scribus running on Linux and promised to give it a go on the Mac. That’s what we’re doing today.
Lauded by some, despised by others, ThinkFree Office has clearly made an impression among Mac users – but what exactly does free mean? And do you get what you pay for?