Ivan Kowalenko's Thoughts

Dateline: August 13, 2011 —South Saint Paul, Minnesota

When I tell you that I have written this on my Mac Classic II, in Mac OS 7, using Word 5.1, I’m sure the first thing in your mind will be, “why?”

Well, let’s start with the obvious things: my MacBook Pro is in for repairs. I was not an acceptable option to let its warranty lapse without first taking care of the hardware issues it had. From there, that’s where things could have gone differently. In our house, we have a few computers. There was my MacBook Pro, the family PC, a Dell Inspiron, an old Toshiba Satellite, and an iBook G4. Unfortunately, except for the family PC, most of these require work to get them to a fully functional state. The Dell Inspiron is the computer with the newest round of issues, and also some of the hardest ones to resolve: its power jack needs to be replaced. The Satellite, while running Ubuntu 11, has graphic issues due to drivers being incompatible with new software and no proper open source solution yet available. The iBook G4 has a thoroughly wrecked hinge and damaged video cables, making it impossible to use it without the possibility of exacerbating the physical problems (the power jack and video out ports are on separate sides of the machine).

This left me with the family PC, where demand for time on it far outstrips supply, my Nexus S, and my surprisingly functional Macintosh Classic II. It is inevitable that I will need to use the family PC, since the Mac Classic has no printer, and no network connectivity. The idea here, then, is to reduce the amount of time I need to use it. The Nexus S is a possibility to temporarily replace my MacBook Pro, as it has access to all the files I need through Dropbox and Google Docs, but even with an incredibly smart on-screen keyboard (I’m currently using Swiftkey X), it is still difficult to type anything of great length on it.

This left the Macintosh Classic II. I had upgraded it to System 7.5.5 a long time ago, had found a SCSI Zip drive (I already had an ample supply of Zip Disks), and had a few 1.44 MB diskettes (plus a 1.44 MB Diskette drive salvaged from a laptop with a built-in USB interface). This meant that data could easily be brought into, and out of the Mac Classic II. With Word 5.1 on board, it also meant I could do the majority of work I needed to do with my laptop (typing) on the Classic II, with the majority of the necessary formatting, and then bring it to the Family PC to final touches, and distribution (sending the information to the Internet, or printing it, or what ever else needed to be done).

Word 5.1 on Mac OS 7.5.5

Sure, this basically makes my Mac Classic II a glorified typewriter, but unlike my old Smith Corona, I can still edit documents, and the documents are still digitized, so all I need to do in order to bring things into a modern world is copy and paste it. After all, the original Macintosh, predating my Classic II by many years, ushered in the era of what was called Desktop Publishing. Since then, the majority of what people do with their word processors hasn’t changed much: both do page layout, both will do images (though, granted, I cannot easily import graphics from my camera or the Internet, and I also cannot see color, see example at right), I can adjust the italics and character spacing. In many ways, Word 5 and ClarisWorks 2 still offer more document editing and display control capabilities than many modern blogging engines, or even Google Docs!

This is also partially an experiment. An experiment to see how easy it is to go backwards in time. Obviously, it won’t be easy, but aside from the video work I do, the majority of what I do on my laptop can easily be replaced with the Classic II (for typing) and my Nexus S (access to the Internet). On the whole, it could possibly be a productivity enhancement. The Classic II lacks many distractions found on a modern PC, and my Nexus S can still serve as my necessary link to parts of the Internet (such as e-mail, access to group messaging, keeping up on the news, and so forth). Sure, it means fewer cat pictures, and not checking Twitter every five minutes, but it does mean doing more serious work. And if the process doesn’t scar me too much, and doesn’t have too much of a negative impact in time when it comes down to the transition from the Classic environment to the modern world, I may maintain this set-up, leaving my laptop for the times when I need to do work that simply cannot effectively be done on the Classic.

Either that, or I’ll sink a bunch of time into the machine, then spend the rest of my time on CraigsList looking up peripherals for it, get them, install them, then get my laptop back and never use the thing again. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out.

Related posts:

• Living with a Mac Classic II – Day Three
• Living with a Mac Classic II – Day Seven

Mac OS, Mac OS 7, Mac OS 7.5.5, Macintosh, Macintosh Classic, Macintosh Classic II, retrocomputing, Technology