20 Macs

You know about the Macintosh, but do you know about the sequel? The Macintosh II was huge--literally. But its compact successors might be the pinnacle of late 80s/early 90s Apple design.

Andy Ihnatko, Quinn Rose, Shelly Brisbin, John Siracusa, John Gruber, and Adam Engst

The popularity of the iPod led Apple to create a Mac designed specifically to tempt people to switch from Windows. It didn't go as planned, but the result was a Mac model that's been with us for fifteen years and counting.

Christina Warren, Andy Ihnatko, Shelly Brisbin, Dan Moren, Stephen Hackett, James Thomson, and John Gruber

Post production help from Brian Hamilton.

One of the most important developments in the history of the Mac was not created in Cupertino, but by a Mac clonemaker in a tiny town in Georgia.

John Siracusa, John Gruber, Irvan Krantzler, Andrew Lewis, and Rick LePage

Post-production help by Brian Hamilton.

Professionals were dragged out of their beige towers by an iMac-inspired Power Mac that featured a drop-down door, big plastic handles, and a raft of new technologies.

Christina Warren, Andy Ihnatko, Shelly Brisbin, Dan Moren, Stephen Hackett, John Siracusa, James Thomson, and John Gruber

Apple follows up its groundbreaking original PowerBooks with a new set of laptops that ushered in perhaps the ugliest period in Apple laptop history.

Andy Ihnatko, Quinn Rose, John Siracusa, and John Gruber

Apple had made numerous attempts to sell server hardware, including a strange non-Mac server that Steve Jobs likened to a bizarre dream. But in the early 2000s, Jobs decided to take another crack at it, and vowed that this time things would be different.

Andy Ihnatko, Shelly Brisbin, Stephen Hackett, and John Siracusa

The very first time Apple made a laptop that compromised in numerous ways, all in the question of being as thin and light as possible.

Andy Ihnatko, Shelly Brisbin, John Siracusa, John Gruber, Tonya Engst, and Adam Engst

Errata: The original iMac came out in 1998, not 1997.

The classic "cheese grater" design of the Power Mac G5 influences the design of the modern Mac Pro, and also represents (in the worst way) the last time Apple embarked on a chip transition.

Andy Ihnatko, Shelly Brisbin, Stephen Hackett, John Siracusa, John Gruber, and Adam Engst

Jason Snell introduces 20 Macs for 2020, a project that will count down his list of the 20 most notable Macs of all time, one per week, with a little help from his friends.