GUI to relive: Website emulates settings of numerous Macs
How did people configure Macs in the past? Designer Marcin Wichery has compiled 20 years of macOS history on one page.
Settings menu in classic macOS: Here is an excerpt from Apple's Mac manual.
(Image: Apple)
Mac fans who want to indulge in nostalgia on the weekend can do so on a website by designer Marcin Wichery: With “Frame of Preference,” he has launched an offer that shows how Macs were configured between the years 1984 and 2004. In other words, it is a collection of the settings dialogs that Apple has given macOS over the years. The special feature: The (very) extensive page not only shows images and videos but also implements an emulation directly in the browser in each case.
Hobby: Mac settings
System 1.0 to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther are covered, plus, as a goodie, NeXTStep 2.2. If it is not possible to load the respective emulator, videos can also be started. Also very successful: Wichery also adds many additional graphics, such as icons, writes his review, and tells various anecdotes. There is also an epilogue on today's look (albeit still without Liquid Glass from macOS 26) plus an excursus on Lisa.
The idea behind “Frame of Preference” is to provide a journey through the settings dialogs of the first 20 Mac years, says Wichery. As a designer, he shouldn't really like settings. But as a user, “I love them”. That's why he celebrates an annual “Settings Day”: it's “a day when I look at all the options and buttons in all the apps I use.”
Videos by heise
From Susan Kare to Panther
During one of these sessions, he remembered the 1984 Mac settings created by designer Susan Kare. He then asked himself what had happened since then. “It looks like the Mac settings have had a much more fascinating life than I thought.” Apple had frequently redesigned them. “And that says a lot about the early history and difficult youth of this interesting machine.”
Incidentally, the journey continues: Apple has also redesigned the settings again with macOS 26. They can now be completely monochrome (and cluttered) if desired and, like the rest of the system, have rounder corners and various other new effects. As usual, it will take some time for many users to get used to them – but then they will become second nature. Until Apple makes the next redesign.
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