Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

tedium.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–19 of 19 posts

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#11

Post by FirmwareBurner »

inetknght wrote: post #6

My dad worked at Motorola at the time. He told a story where Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis. Bad times. Anyway, my dad worked on the machines that built/tested the motherboard for motorola's clones. He'd bring home some of the broken ones that were supposed to be dumped, and he'd fix them up. I had a top-notch StarMax running some ad-hoc fixes and upgrades. Pretty sweet machine until I finall…

>Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis

Do you know why? Sounds like a story everyone would be interested to hear.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#12

Post by robterrell »

papermachelike wrote: post #9
robterrell wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ModBook is mentioned in the article. But Outbound (another deconstructed Mac) is not.

I saw an Outbound in the early 90s if my memory is right. Their use of the tiny bar as mouse replacement looked really cool. Kinda want to play around with that as an input device.

I have one in the basement! The bar was called the "ISOpoint" bar. It was a great use of the tiny space. Also innovative was the IR keyboard. You could disconnect and move it pretty far from the main unit.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#13

Post by inetknght »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #11
inetknght wrote: post #6

My dad worked at Motorola at the time. He told a story where Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis. Bad times. Anyway, my dad worked on the machines that built/tested the motherboard for motorola's clones. He'd bring home some of the broken ones that were supposed to be dumped, and he'd fix them up. I had a top-notch StarMax running some ad-hoc fixes and upgrades. Pretty sweet machine until I finall…

>Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis Do you know why? Sounds like a story everyone would be interested to hear.

No, I don't know/remember why. But it was shortly after that when mac clones stopped being a thing.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#14

Post by WillAdams »

ggm wrote: post #8

I dislike the cult of Jobs, but I do have moments of respect for him in "brand" sense he had very strong drive not to "dilute the brand" and I would think most apple shareholders (I am not one consciously but who knows what tech stocks my pension fund holds) would agree. There hasn't been a time since his return to apple where a shareholder had reason to question the long term value. I wanted hackintosh to work forev…

Very sad that Hackintoshes are approaching the end of their workability --- I'd give a lot to be able to have a portable w/ a Wacom EMR stylus --- probably going to break down and just buy a Mac Mini and connect it to a Wacom Movink 13.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#15

Post by FirmwareBurner »

inetknght wrote: post #13
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis Do you know why? Sounds like a story everyone would be interested to hear.

No, I don't know/remember why. But it was shortly after that when mac clones stopped being a thing.

Using security to escort Steve Jobs out seems a bit extreme, no? Were they afraid he was gonna steal or break something on his way out or what lol

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#16

Post by [deleted] »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #11
inetknght wrote: post #6

My dad worked at Motorola at the time. He told a story where Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis. Bad times. Anyway, my dad worked on the machines that built/tested the motherboard for motorola's clones. He'd bring home some of the broken ones that were supposed to be dumped, and he'd fix them up. I had a top-notch StarMax running some ad-hoc fixes and upgrades. Pretty sweet machine until I finall…

>Motorola security walked Steve Jobs off of the premesis Do you know why? Sounds like a story everyone would be interested to hear.

[deleted]

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#17

Post by trenchpilgrim »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #15
inetknght wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't know/remember why. But it was shortly after that when mac clones stopped being a thing.

Using security to escort Steve Jobs out seems a bit extreme, no? Were they afraid he was gonna steal or break something on his way out or what lol

When I worked at $BIGCORP it was corporate policy that all visitors needed to be escorted out of the building, but this was usually done by one of the employees they had come to meet with, not security.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#18

Post by hakfoo »

papermachelike wrote: post #9
robterrell wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ModBook is mentioned in the article. But Outbound (another deconstructed Mac) is not.

I saw an Outbound in the early 90s if my memory is right. Their use of the tiny bar as mouse replacement looked really cool. Kinda want to play around with that as an input device.

The Rollermouse Free product appears to be cut from the same cloth. The learning curve might be troublesome.

Re: Mac Clones History: A Tale of Poor Margins and Bad Timing

#19

Post by heuermh »

shrubble wrote: post #7

PowerComputing was shipping new models faster and cheaper than Apple, and even their advertising was distinctive in the Mac magazines. When they were kicked off Apple licensing they were allowed to sell their inventory; their last ad had some police officer paraphernalia and the slogan was “We Lost Our License to Speed”.

I had a PowerComputing desktop, sweet metal case, and good performance specs for the price. I can't recall the exact model though. Was still working fine when I donated it to a local vintage computer non-profit!
Post reply on HN