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Apple Computers Across All Time And Space

The little (allegedly) garage-built computer that could, leading into one of the most inescapable Gadget Fashion brands in the industry. Think what you will about Apple themselves (I sure will), their hardware ecosystem is weird and fun. And, to date, they've never seen a single penny from me. Hah.

Alli's Sister

In the olden times, my earliest computers were all IBM-compatibles. Alli's Sister (there is two of them!) is my first proper 8-bit computer, not realized until 2019. The previous owner sent along two floppy disks with Important Software; on one disk were copies of ADTPro (a serial-compatible floppy disk image writer) and a terminal program, while the other contained a copy of a game called "E.T. Comes Back." I agree - that is important software. Since then, I've been trying to use her as a serial terminal connected to a Linux-running computer, just to say that I can; it's a feat that I did finally accomplish shortly before The Worst happened.

Unfortunately, the last time I had Alli's Sister connected to power, some of the Magic Blue Smoke was released in the power supply; it didn't seem like it was bringing the computer down, but I have not had the thing plugged in since then, for fear that the damage could spread. I still need to inspect her for more serious issues... or replace the PSU entirely, as I'm sure there are much more reliable (and cleaner, and less hungry) solutions in the modern era.

Idunn

Apparently rescued from a small business that produced mailing labels, Idunn came to me with a SCSI hard drive that had been partitioned in a manner I could not comprehend (none of the hard drive utilities I'd found, would recognize that it was one disk and not eight separate devices). The drive was sold onwards to someone else, because I'd found something better: my BMOW Floppy Emu, which can emulate an Apple HD20. Back in 2024 I was using Idunn to draw commissions (yes, with the trackball!), so I've included those here for the hell of it.

Naglfar

Purchased for just $35 from local Craigslist, Naglfar came to me as just a bare tower, with its original translucent power cable and no other peripherals. Its owner had fully wiped it and installed Panther on it, which proved to be a bit too much for even its absurd 512 MB RAM. Over the years I've reassembled almost all of the relevant peripherals, including color-correct Apple USB keyboard and mouse, and the silly MacSense iCatch plastic mouse extension. With its ability to easily switch between three different versions of Mac OS, and ready acceptance of standard VGA, Ethernet, and USB connections, Naglfar makes an excellent vessel for all things Mac abandonware. I am routinely surprised by how capable its ATI Rage 128 video card is.

Skadi

Ancestral Mini

Aegir

Mimisbrunnr

One of many previous Desk Machines, Mimisbrunnr was bought in the silly belief that I really didn't need a very powerful computer to do Desk Work. For sure, it actually did do that fairly well, bringing me just enough computing Power to write documents, do my taxes, keep a chat room open, and play occasional music. However, its old and slightly underpowered 4th-gen Intel i5 proved a bit of a headache for playing videos in Firefox. When it was replaced with Brokkr (an impulse purchase), I decided to take Mimisbrunnr into the living room, plugged it into the parents' unreasonably large TV, and set it up with some free video server software. Its lack of internal expandability has, so far, been supplemented with three USB hard drives. This may need to change in the future. It seems unsustainable.

Brokkr

You'd be surprised how cheap these things are going, ten-plus years down the line. The Xeon is no slouch, the FirePros can help a lot with video encoding, and the desk footprint isn't too bad. Seemingly nobody wants them anymore because they're not the Apple Silicon kind, everyone mocks the trashcan form factor (even me), and Apple themselves have ended official OS updates for them (not that this thing particularly liked running macOS 12 in the first place). It serves as a great space for me to just Sit And Make Stuff on. Including this very website.

After a period of serving as a Desk Machine, I grew tired of the issues LMDE was presenting (especially in not supporting the front-panel audio jacks correctly), and wiped it back to macOS, then replaced it with one of the two Dell Precision Towers I'd been given.