The new MacBooks end this tradition as the chime has been removed completely and the machines will make no noise at all on boot, unless there is a fault. However, there seems to be a good reason for this change …
Progress but nostalgia certainly took a hit today. If you’re a Mac Geek, I highly recommend you check out MacTracker. They have the startup chime for every Mac every released built into the profiles page. A geek could spend hours listening to chimes, reminiscing of features and specs and thinking about how they were crazy for spending $2500 (in 1999) for a PowerBook G3 w/ a 200Mhz CPU.