Hacker News with Generative AI: Technology History

Apple needs a Snow Sequoia (reviews.ofb.biz)
The same year Apple launched the iPhone, it unveiled a massive upgrade to Mac OS X known as Leopard, sporting “300 New Features.” Two years later, it did something almost unheard of: it released Snow Leopard, an upgrade all about how little it added and how much it took away. Apple needs to make it snow again.
Apple, Operating Systems, Software Updates, Technology History
989 points by trbutler 6 days ago | 779 comments
Apple's long-lost hidden recovery partition from 1994 has been found (downtowndougbrown.com)
In my last post about hard drives that go bad over time, I hinted at having rescued a lost piece of obscure Apple software history from an old 160 MB Conner hard drive that had its head stuck in the parked position. This post is going to be all about it. It’s the tale of a tad bit of an obsession, what felt like a hopeless search, and how persistence eventually paid off.
Apple, Technology History, Data Recovery, Hard Drives
315 points by chmaynard 18 days ago | 99 comments
UI is hell: four-function calculators (lcamtuf.substack.com)
I have a thing for the history of calculators; they were among the earliest portable electronics, they pushed the limits of display technologies, and were the first digital computing devices to enter millions of homes.
Calculators, Technology History, Electronics
225 points by surprisetalk 69 days ago | 138 comments
How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software (theregister.com)
Opinion The resurfacing of a 1995 Usenet post earlier this month prompted The Reg FOSS desk to re-examine a pivotal operating system flop … and its long-term consequences.
Operating Systems, Software History, Legacy Software, Technology History
7 points by mooreds 84 days ago | 3 comments
The Power Mac 4400 (512pixels.net)
In November 1996, Apple released the Power Macintosh 4400 with a starting price of $1,725. Also sold as the Power Macintosh 7220, it’d be easy to write this machine off as just another grain of sand on the beige beach that was Apple’s product line in the 1990s.
Apple, Computer Hardware, Retro Computing, Technology History
114 points by speckx 108 days ago | 150 comments
Enterprise Philosophy and the First Wave of AI (stratechery.com)
The popular history of technology usually starts with the personal computer, and for good reason: that was the first high tech device that most people ever used. The only thing more impressive than the sheer audacity of “A computer on every desk and in every home” as a corporate goal, is the fact that Microsoft accomplished it, with help from its longtime competitor Apple.
Enterprise Philosophy, Technology History, Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft, Apple
12 points by mfiguiere 190 days ago | 0 comments
Technology history: Where Unix came from (allthingsopen.org)
Technology History, Operating Systems, Unix
8 points by devonnull 246 days ago | 3 comments
Why Steve Jobs Went 'Thermonuclear' over Android (2014) (pcmag.com)
Steve Jobs, Android, Technology History, Business
49 points by thunderbong 285 days ago | 53 comments
Palm OS and the devices that ran it (arstechnica.com)
Operating Systems, Mobile Devices, Technology History
154 points by Brajeshwar 343 days ago | 98 comments