Luddite Mac

Luddite Mac was our 2002 April Fools parody looking back at the lowest of the low-end Macs.

April 1, 2002

Top Link: The $299 2 GHz iMac ‘040, Steve Watkins, The Practical Mac, 04.01. How Apple could produce a 2 GHz iMac and sell it for just $299.
Mac of the Day: Macintosh 512K (9/84-4/86). The first Mac with enough memory for serious work.
Email List of the Day: Vintage Macs, for the Mac II series, LCs, and 68030-based Performas.

On Luddite Mac

The March on Redmond, Tim Nash, Taking Back the Market, 04.01. “At the start, it looked like a parade. Children were twirling gaily colored one-button mice….”
The $299 2 GHz iMac ‘040, Steve Watkins, The Practical Mac, 04.01. How Apple could produce a 2 GHz iMac and sell it for just $299.
10 Reasons to Use a Typewriter, Beverly Woods, Acoustic Mac, 04.01. Typewriters are more creative than computers and create more jobs.
Why the Mac Plus is Best, Charlie Ruggiero, Mac Daniel, 04.01. Want the simplest, most trouble-free Mac ever? Buy a Mac Plus for about $30.
SE/30 Is the Perfect Mac, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 04.01. Mac design peaked with the SE/30 and has been slipping ever since.
I’m Not Moving to GS/OS!, Eric Schwarz, Apple II Forever, 04.01. I think I’m going to stick with ProDOS for a few reasons.
Peak Performa, Anne Onymus, My Turn, 04.01. The best Macs ever? The 630, 630 DOS Compatible, and 575. Here’s why.
PowerBook 5300: The Real PowerBook, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 04.01. For me, the 5300 is and always will be the real PowerBook benchmark.
Apples in Science Class, Jeff Adkins, Mac Lab Report, 04.01. Have we made any real progress by adopting Macs and leaving the Apple IIs behind?
About Luddite Mac, Dan Knight, 04.01
April 1 in LUD history. Low End Win – High End Mac
Addicted to Uold Macs, John C. Foster, My Turn, 2002.03.29. I know that I have a problem: I am addicted to old Macs. I can’t help it.
From Luddite to Low End Mac, Beverly Woods, Acoustic Mac, 2001.04.26. From solar Luddite to Mac user in a few easy steps.
A Love of Simple Elegance, b.b., My First Mac, 2000.06.06. “In this age when children are born wired to the Internet, I suppose I must explain my blatant ‘Ludditism.'”

Luddism Around the Web

Opinion: PowerBook 100 a neo-Luddite computer solution, StreetTech. An old computer that “takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.”
Opinion: Apple OS X: Enemy of my enemy, John Holmes, osOpinion, 2001.06.28. “Apple’s biggest worm is not going to be Luddite Mac users. The ship will be destroyed by the enlightened Mac users whom Apple won’t be able to keep.”
Humor: I am the very model of a Luddite on the Internet, Sophie Vitkovitsky
Opinion: Wah on the Mac, Roger Born, My Mac, 2000.05. “Everything works here, and I am very productive at all my creative processes.”
Opinion: Is it OK to be a Luddite, Thomas Pynchon, 1984.10.28. Interesting that this was written the same year that Apple introduced the Macintosh….
Opinion: OS X skepticism does not make one a Luddite, Charles W. Moore, Appelinks, 2000.11.28. “I, philosophically an anti-Enlightenment pre-modernist, am proud to call myself a Luddite.”
Opinion: OS X is coming: Watch out, you may be a reactionary Luddite, Bryan Chaffin, The Back Page, Mac Observer, 2000.11.17.
News: Luddite, “nature’s computer company” integrates natural wood with modern technology.
Technology: Supercomputing Institute, Luddite.net. A private system consisting of several clusters of workstations running a variety of operating systems.
Opinion: About Luddites, Rue Cottage Books. “‘Luddite’ is today’s stylish insult. To be called a Luddite implies a pointless and futile rejection of technology….”
Opinion: Living in a Luddite world, Dr. Tim Hillman, Mac Opinion, 1999.05.06. “Do you ever have a luddite moment? I do. Lots of them.”
Web: Luddism and the Neo-Luddite Reaction, Martin Ryder, University of Colorado at Denver, School of Education2. Excellent links on Luddism.
Opinion: Interview with the Luddite, Kevin Kelly, Wired, 1995.06. “Yet you did smash a computer recently, right?” “I did.”
Opinion: Here a Luddite, there a Luddite, Terry Sullivan, ATW Perspectives, 1999.07.04. “Truth be told, Luddism is indeed alive and well in our postmodern world….”
Opinion: PowerBook 2400: A true Tokyo rose, Leander Kahney, Wired, 03.26. “An old Apple laptop that sold poorly when it was released in Japan a few years ago has subsequently achieved cult status….”

April Fools Around the Web

Select links from the past few days. For more news and opinions, visit The Mac Observer, MacMinute, MacCentral, MacNN, and Applelinks.

AF: Apple announces Mac OS X for x86, moves to Intel processors, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 04.01. “”We didn’t buy that ‘MHz Myth’ stuff any more than our customers did,” said Steve Jobs….”
AF: Microsoft sues Mac Opinion columnist, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 04.01. “…if Microsoft wins the lawsuit, it could set a new precedent in trademark infringement cases.”
AF: Intel addresses concerns over Pentium 5, Winlust.com, 04.01. Biggest problem: PentaPentium requires lots and lots of power.
AF: Fastest Mac on the Planet, Macs Only!, 04.01. Cube rereleased as fastest Mac ever with 1.1 GHz G4.
AF: Video details of Apple’s iTiVo revealed, TidBITS, 04.01.
More links in our archive.