Farewell, Happy Mac
Comments: 10
An icon is dead. For as long as any of us have been using Macs, the Happy Mac startup icon was the whimsical little bringer of the good news that a system had been found and the boot ROM seemed to be OK. Jaguar brings the demise of this stalwart reminder not to take things too seriously, and for all its bells and whistles is the poorer for it. I feel like I’m losing a friend.
There were some days at work when deadlines loomed and all seemed futile when the Happy Mac was the only smile I saw all day. Thanks for everything, and enjoy your retirement.
Of course, I’ll miss its evil twin the Sad Mac icon a lot less. Did you know there was a third member of the family, the Winking Mac? Click below if you’d like a last look.
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Posted to Computers • 2002.08.27 (Tue) • 01:40
Comments
Posted by Mary Beth 2002.08.27, 02:33
Yes, I share your loss. that actually changed in a later build of 10.2 — Build 98 had a little mac with the word “hello”
Sad but true. there’s no reason now to turn off your machine, just so you can see the cheery happy mac at start up.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2002.08.27, 09:39
No happy Mac? Like you, I relished that happy little smile, just the encouragement I needed to brace myself for another day in the old dot-com. I had my share of sad faces, too, and back in the System 7, PowerBook 230 day, the occasional “chimes of death” as SysAdmin called them. When I moved to 10.1, I missed the other accompanying startup sounds that had become synonymous with computer use since my first Mac 512K. I will miss the little guy…I suppose someone will make wallpaper for those of us who wax nostalgic.
Posted by jimmy in ohio 2002.08.28, 06:19
Won’t someone just create hack to get happy mac back at the start up? I want to keep that spinning disc thing though.
Posted by jimmy in ohio 2002.08.28, 06:19
Won’t someone just create a hack to get happy mac back at the start up? I want to keep that new spinning disc thing though.
Posted by jh 2002.09.05, 20:39
Indeed: that hack was not long in coming:
http://www.ryandesign.com/jagboot/
Posted by JUPITER 2004.02.12, 09:01
could someone send me a large file of the icon?
Posted by jh 2004.02.12, 09:31
I doubt anyone has a large version: it was always a 32*32px icon. You’d probably need to take the image above and somehow ‘blow it up’ (which could look terrible) or redraw it to the size you need.
Posted by Margaret 2004.07.17, 07:32
There are big black and white images of happy mac and sad mac— just do a google image search. I’m looking for an image of dead mac— I’m making a livejournal mood set out of happy mac icons, and I think dead mac would be perfect for “exhausted”.
Posted by iwantthehappymacback 2004.07.31, 10:40
was the winking mac ever used anywhere?
Posted by Leanne 2004.08.29, 04:00
I’m getting a tattoo of the happy mac.
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