TuxPPC: iMacLinux Edition

iMac History

Apple® released the first iMac in August 1998. The Revision A iMac was followed quickly by the Revision B, sporting 6MB SGRAM which meant you could achieve 32 bit colour at 1024x768. The Rev.B also fixed some of the problems that plagued many of the Rev.A systems, a faulty CRT. In January 1999, Apple® released the Revision C and in August 1999, Revision D iMacs, these had a faster processor, SDRAM sockets and of course came in those famous colourful varieties. Apple® also released the first slot loading iMac a 350Mhz Blueberry model and the very cool iMac DV/SE in 1999. The DV/SE being the first model to have firewire ports.

In July 2001, Apple® released the iMac DV which came in Indigo and Ruby. The DV was slightly slower than the DV+ units and had smaller hard disk capacity. The DV+ ran at 450MHz and was available in Indigo, Sage and Ruby. At the same time Apple® also released two new high-end Special Edition iMacs in Graphite in Snow, the new DV/SE. These ran at 500MHz, had 30GB Hard disks (10GB more than the DV+). The DV/SE was shipped standard with 128MB, twice that of the DV+. All of these 2000 iMacs sported the new Apple® keyboards and optical Pro mice. Apple® also released a 350MHz Indigo iMac which was the low end of the new group.

In 2001, Apple® released the slightly more colourful 400MHz and 500MHz iMacs. These sported firewire, up to 16MB of video ram and of course had reduced prices. Apple® kept the Indigo colour, but replaced the others with "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian". The 500MHz models sport a PowerPC 750cx processor. At the same time, Apple® modified their DV line, keeping the graphite colour, and dropping the others for the multi-coloured versions. Later in 2001, Apple® released three more sets of iMacs, sporting faster CPUs, more memory and a CD-RW (CD Rewritable) drive as standard. The 500MHz model in Indigo and Snow, the 600MHz model in graphite and snow and the iMac Special Edition also in graphite and snow. Since Apple® put firewire in all their new iMacs, they have dropped the DV suffix.

As of September 2001, all iMacs are G3 based and all work under Linux. We have outlined each iMac below with specifications and other information. Today iMacs have at least 128MB or 256MB from factory. Earlier iMacs were shipped with 32MB or 64MB. All newer iMacs in 2001 and earlier DV versions have VGA out connectors. iMacs where airport is listed below means that there is a slot for the airport card as an optional extra. In 2000, Apple® made the cases more translucent (eg. more like the iMac DV Graphite) than earlier models. iMacs vary in processor speed, hard disk capacity, video chipset/memory and factory installed memory sizes. The latest iMacs lack DVD support. No iMac has been shipped with floppy disk drives, and all have built in speakers.

The iMac has again been subject to a revolution with the new LCD iMac introduced at the keynote to the MacWorld Expo San Francisco 2002. The CRT type iMac has given the relay to an awesome new "device", breaking completely with the classic conception of a computer. The iMac is far from being some kind of box. It has a slim, small base, formed a bit like a half cone with the height of a CD case. Attached to its top it has a freely movable metallic arm wearing the clear 15" LCD screen. It looks a bit like a flower.

On the technical side, a lot has been revamped as well. For the first time, it has a G4 chip as CPU, at 700 and 800 Mhz. It comes with 128 or 256 MB RAM, 40 or 60 GB harddrive, a cristall clear 15" LCD display at 1024*768 resolution max., driven by an NVidia GeForce2 MX graphics chip, equipped with 32MB of fast DDR RAM. For the optical drives, available are either a CDRW (writes CD-R discs at 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at 10x speed, reads CDs at 32x speed), DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive (reads DVDs at 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at 12x speed, writes CD-RW discs at 8x speed, reads CDs at 32x speed) or the SuperDrive (combination DVD-R/CD-RW drive; writes DVD-R discs at 2x speed, reads DVDs at 6x speed, writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at 8x speed, reads CDs at 24x speed).

The available ports are mainly the same as with previous models, except for a 3rd USB port added and a VGA out port.

In the end of April 2002, Apple has released a new Mac type, loosely based on the older CRT iMacs and targeted at the educational market, the eMac. It has a 700Mhz G4, 128 or 512MB RAM, a 17" flat CRT display, a Geforce2 MX with 32 MB VRAM, a CD-Rom or a combo DVD/CDRW drive and starts at 999ドル.

All pictures on this page are "Courtesy of Apple"