The announcement of the iPod in late 2001 was in the same Town Hall auditorium that hosted last week’s iPhone SE and iPad Pro announcements, but back in 2001 there were plenty of empty seats. The whole world wasn’t watching Apple back then — but the Mac web certainly was.
Just as Mac user groups and bulletin boards were a key part of Apple’s community in the mid-1980s, in the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Mac web was a gathering place for the tiny minority of people who loved Apple’s stuff. If you didn’t live through it, you probably won’t believe it, but back then Apple was a tarnished brand coveted by a tiny fraction of computer users who were generally dismissed as magazine designers and cultists.
One of the amazing things about going on the internet for the first time is discovering that you’re not alone. All those things that you love, that people think you’re weird for loving? The internet is full of people just like you, who love that thing too! In the ’90s that’s what happened with websites covering Apple and the Mac. We formed a giant user group of people who loved this thing that everyone else thought was irrelevant at best and idiotic at worst: the Mac.
Anyone that loved this article should listen to the latest episode of Talk Show w/ John Gruber. Re-counting the classic days of Apple was a lot of fun. I had forgotten all about ResEdit.
My first Mac was an LCIII followed shortly by a Mac SE, a Mac Plus and a PowerMac G3. I started collecting old Macs that worked or were on their way out. My first new mac was a G3 iBook in 2001. Hand-Me-Down Macs didn’t do much but they were fun. I’d just tinker with them. I miss those days. Really. They web was this quirky place where we could all hang out and everything was free and fun and unfiltered. There were no repercussions or consequences. Google wasn’t around to index it. Looking today at this tiny MacBook and 4K screen and it still feels like the future.