Apple has a rich, if chequered, history of releasing new Macs for hardcore computing professionals. Now that the Mac Pro has had a long-awaited revamp to Apple Silicon, let’s remember the days when pro Macs were towering beasts using more metal than the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and more plastic than a nursery full of Lego bricks.
Today some pro Mac users are happy with a flimsy bit of aluminium like the Mac mini. Wimps. We demand something that looks like it contains a nuclear reactor. It needs to be bigger than a suitcase with warning stickers all over it, hotter than a barbecue and noisier than a drag car. Yes, something like the old Power Mac G5. Here’s a look at Apple’s beefy, bodacious, and behemoth pro Macs over the years.
1. APPLE I (1976-1977)
Apple’s first computer wasn’t technically a ‘Mac’, of course. The Apple I’s users didn’t work in Final Cut, Aperture or Adobe Creative Suite. Indeed they would have fainted at the very thought of MacPaint. And it’s hard to call them ‘professional’. Some of them looked like they’d lived wild in a forest for the previous half of their lives – and that was just the guys from Apple.
The Apple I was no slouch, but it wasn’t pro by today’s definition. It was invented by Homebrew Computer Club members Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs – and we all know that ‘homebrew’ is by definition not professional. These computer
