Apple Macintosh Performa 550, 1994

From donor Jason Ellis: “Used to relieve the experience of interacting with operating systems made specifically for older computers, including System 7.5.5, Mac OS 7.6, and Mac OS 9.2.1. In some of my work, I compared my first-hand experiences with reviews and reflections published in periodicals such as PC User, Mac User, and Macworld, and in online discussion forums. There are a range of uses for these vintage computers. A few possible use scenarios:

Run game software on the original platforms that software was written for

Retrieve files and data from media that might be more easily accessed and read on a vintage computing platform than on a modern computer with specialized retrieval hardware (this could be especially true on Macs due to the way files have a data fork and a resource fork that PCs cannot easily decipher)

Provide first-hand experiences of using these computers and their software to build stronger understandings of the evolution of computing hardware and software

Provide first-hand experience for students of computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering who have not had experience using or studying these platforms and their software

Study user experience with these computers and their software and compare user experience with written accounts (how might our perspective now or in the future change the way we see these technologies?)