A History of Apple’s Operating Systems
I heard myself say wow! A History of Apple’s Operating Systems
What memories this dry, factual history of Mac OS evolution brought back.
I came to Macintosh probably around version 6 of the MacOS. Midway through college, working a side job programming educational software in the basement of a cement block building on the outskirts of Bloomington, Indiana. Upstairs where the windows were, the writers/art department had a couple of macintoshes. I recall making my way by one of the cubes housing those cute little boxy units and the operator was off getting coffee or who knows…. I slid in and tapped the mouse around. Circa six months later I’d purged my flat of all things PC and was scheming for a way to buy a Mac of my own.
Somewhere around the time of System 7 I found myself as one of two in-house Mac developers for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich Germany. What a job that turned out to be — time of my life. It was there I really learned to write Macintosh software. But just as the fun started to sink in, we won the Cold War and it was time to move on.
At the start of college I read several books which helped me vibe some of the personal computer years I missed out on. One of those was "Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" by Cliff Stoll. Three months ago I’m doing my role as head of tech support for CCAuthorize for — coincidentally, a guy whose company name is Acme Klein Bottle — and after hanging up the phone, it occurred to me that his name sounded really familiar! OK, I’ve helped him in the past probably and that’s why I remember it. But no, it seemed different than that. Stoll…. Stoll… I shifted off the couch to the bookshelf. There it was, my old copy of Cuckoo’s Egg. I phoned him back immediately and fawned over the fact that the author of a book I enjoyed so much so many years ago, was now a happy customer of mine. He’s incredibly humble and tries to play down that period of his life as nothing special, but bless his heart, he sent me out an autographed copy a couple weeks later. Love Cliff Stoll.
Visit Cliff’s funky website and Klein bottle factory.
