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0 pointssublinear22d ago0 comments

Was it really the iMac that did it? I don't think I remember anyone saying that until recent years. Around the time of the first iMac, just about every home PC already had a pair of USB 1.1 ports because of Windows 98 and a lot more plug and play support.

What I recall being sold for Mac were FireWire peripherals back in the late 90s and most of the 2000s. By 2000, USB 2.0 was too good to ignore and addressed all the pain points manufacturers had with USB 1.1 being too slow. That's when I remember USB drives finally being practical and mainstream.

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ben_w21d ago

IIRC, the Mac magazines I read at the time were making this claim.

The magazines may have been wrong and their claims turned into an urban legend in the meantime, but it's part of the general sense of what I recall from, ugh, nearly 30 years back now.

swiftcoder22d ago

The iMac certainly accelerated the adoption curve. There were USB ports on other PCs, but since they also had normal (at the time) ports, no PC users were going out and buying all-new USB peripherals.

Apple's decision to leave out all the other ports meant that a bunch of folks were forced to buy new USB peripherals (and/or adapters), and gave peripheral manufacturers a dedicated market for USB

dtech22d ago

I don't but this. The first 2 generations of iPod didn't even have USB connectors, only FireWire, which was a PITA as most PCs had a USB connection by that time but FireWire wasn't common as opposed to Mac.

swiftcoder21d ago

I don't think that runs contrary to my point in any way?

By the time the iPod came around, Apple had adopted FireWire to handle devices that USB's then-limited bandwidth couldn't really support. USB peripherals like mouse/keyboards were already pretty widespread by then.

ben_w21d ago

Apple is consistently weird about peripherals, yes.

Hockey Puck mouse.

sublinearOP22d ago

I'm not really convinced.

It seems that even Apple quickly caved in and put FireWire on the G3 iMac when they updated the design to a slot loader in 1999.

I don't have anything against Apple, but USB before the 2000s was pretty bad. It seems weird that people are now thinking otherwise.

ben_w21d ago

Sure. The point I was claiming was not Apple being first nor early USB being good, though I don't speak for swiftcoder.

When Firewire was introduced, it wasn't ever popular enough to get the self-sustaining popularity loop of "all the machines have it" <-> "all the peripheral makers support it".

Apple made that happen for USB. Not because USB was amazing in 1997, but because it was the only thing on what was then the cheapest new Mac.

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swiftcoder22d ago

> but USB before the 2000s was pretty bad

Indeed. So bad that no one apart from Apple would have tried to go all-in on it. I doubt things like USB mice and keyboards would ever have happened if Apple didn't give it a kick in the behind

Firewire was indeed a nice addition when that came along, but it always remained the domain of pricey high-bandwidth devices.

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ben_w21d ago

IIRC, the Mac magazines I read at the time were making this claim.

The magazines may have been wrong and their claims turned into an urban legend in the meantime, but it's part of the general sense of what I recall from, ugh, nearly 30 years back now.

swiftcoder22d ago

Apple's decision to leave out all the other ports meant that a bunch of folks were forced to buy new USB peripherals (and/or adapters), and gave peripheral manufacturers a dedicated market for USB

dtech22d ago

swiftcoder21d ago

I don't think that runs contrary to my point in any way?

ben_w21d ago

Apple is consistently weird about peripherals, yes.

Hockey Puck mouse.

sublinearOP22d ago

I'm not really convinced.

It seems that even Apple quickly caved in and put FireWire on the G3 iMac when they updated the design to a slot loader in 1999.

I don't have anything against Apple, but USB before the 2000s was pretty bad. It seems weird that people are now thinking otherwise.

ben_w21d ago

Sure. The point I was claiming was not Apple being first nor early USB being good, though I don't speak for swiftcoder.

When Firewire was introduced, it wasn't ever popular enough to get the self-sustaining popularity loop of "all the machines have it" <-> "all the peripheral makers support it".

Apple made that happen for USB. Not because USB was amazing in 1997, but because it was the only thing on what was then the cheapest new Mac.

1 more reply

swiftcoder22d ago

> but USB before the 2000s was pretty bad

Indeed. So bad that no one apart from Apple would have tried to go all-in on it. I doubt things like USB mice and keyboards would ever have happened if Apple didn't give it a kick in the behind

Firewire was indeed a nice addition when that came along, but it always remained the domain of pricey high-bandwidth devices.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse