20 Macs
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
28: Performa Month
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
27: The 21st Mac
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Hackett joins Jason to wrap up the series and discuss all the Macs that didn't make the list.
26: John Gruber, part 3
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From November 20, 2020: Titanium PowerBook G4, MacBook Air, the original Macintosh, PowerBook 140/170, and iMac G3.
25: John Gruber, part 2
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From August 31, 2020: The Macintosh Portable, Power Computing clones, iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, iBook, Macintosh SE/30, and laying out pages at coll...
24: John Gruber, part 1
05 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From June 12, 2020: The Power Mac G5, PowerBook Duo, PowerBook 500 & 5300, Blue-and-White Power Mac G3, DayStar Genesis MP, Mac mini, Mac IIcx and IIc...
22: John Siracusa, part 2
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From September 1, 2020: The Macintosh Portable, Power Computing clones, iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, iBook, and Macintosh SE/30.
23: John Siracusa, part 3
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From November 20, 2020: Titanium PowerBook G4, MacBook Air, the original Macintosh, PowerBook 140/170, iMac G3, and to his great dismay, John learns J...
21: John Siracusa, part 1
12 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two interviews with John Siracusa used for the 20 Macs for 2020 podcast, discussing the first nine entries in the series.
20: iMac G3 (#1)
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It was the late 90s and Apple was on the ropes. Steve Jobs knew the company needed a lifeline, fast. And 10 months after Jobs took back control of the...
19: The Original PowerBooks (#2)
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After the failure of the Macintosh Portable, Apple took a different approach to designing a laptop. The result helped tip the balance of power between...
18: Original Macintosh (#3)
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The first Mac followed in the Lisa's footsteps and had a lot of limitations--but it changed the course of the computer industry forever.
17: MacBook Air (#4)
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple's first attempt at the ultimate thin and light laptop was overpriced and underpowered. The second attempt resulted in the definitive Mac of the ...
16: Titanium PowerBook G4 (#5)
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple's first metallic silver laptop set the company on a path that it's been on for two decades and counting, but it also proved that the company sti...
15: Mac SE/30 (#6)
20 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What's the best Mac of all time? It's an impossible question to answer. Yet three well-known Mac commentators all have the same answer.
14: iBook G3 (#7)
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After a lot of speculation, Steve Jobs finally filled in the Mac's fourth product quadrant with a consumer laptop that was one of a kind. But what's a...
13: Power Mac G4 Cube (#8)
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There may have never been a Mac more aligned with Steve Jobs's personal quirks than the Power Mac G4 Cube. It was a spectacular failure.
12: iMac G4 (#9)
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of Apple's greatest design triumphs was meant to set the company up for the next decade. Instead, it became a false start--and a rejected design d...
11: Power Computing (#10)
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For a couple of years in the mid-90s, the Mac market was enthralled by a clonemaker with great deals and riotous marketing.
10: Mac Portable (#11)
09 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thank goodness there are second chances, because Apple's first attempt to make a portable Macintosh was as inauspicious at it gets.
9: Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (#12)
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In an era where Apple liked to show concepts from its design lab in public, one weird Mac prototype somehow became a real product, and was unveiled at...
8: Mac IIcx and IIci (#13)
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
7: Mac mini (#14)
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 re...
6: DayStar Genesis MP (#15)
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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.
5: Blue and White Power Mac G3 (#16)
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
4: PowerBook 500 and 5300 (#17)
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Apple follows up its groundbreaking original PowerBooks with a new set of laptops that ushered in perhaps the ugliest period in Apple laptop history.
3: Xserve (#18)
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ea...
2: PowerBook Duo (#19)
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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.
1: Power Mac G5 (#20)
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ti...
0: Introduction
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...