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Become a Six Colors member to read exclusive posts, get our weekly podcast, join our community, and more!By Dan Moren for Macworld
After 40 years, the Mac is immortal
Forty years. In the world of technology, where many devices seem to evaporate after only a matter of months, lasting for a decade is an accomplishment—but four of them? It’s nearly unheard of.
And yet today marks the fortieth anniversary of the Macintosh, a device that—while it has certainly seen its ups and downs over the intervening years—has nevertheless been in constant production since that day Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first took the wraps off it back in 1984.
In that time it’s run on four different processor architectures and two major operating systems, making it bit of a computer of Theseus. It’s seen challengers rise and fall, been threatened with extinction more than once, and yet for all of that has emerged in recent years revitalized and stronger than ever.
Amongst Apple’s products, the iPhone may be more popular, the iPad more futuristic, and the Apple Watch a more impressive feat of engineering, but none have the emotional resonance of the 40-year-old pioneer of the personal computer. Ask any user who’s been around long enough, and no doubt their own personal story is intertwined with the Mac.