Mac Life has a really great article about the history of the iMac.  I have had 3 iMacs myself.  The first was the original bondi blue model.  I remember being a little concerned that I no longer had a floppy drive, and that the only expansion ports that I had available were 2 USB ports.  Later, I realized that I didn’t need a floppy drive after all, and that was long before I started to worry about backups.  A year and a half later, I purchased an iMac DV.  Just after I started working for Apple in 2003, I bought my last iMac, a 17 inch iMac G4.  I loved the flat panel display.  After that iMac, I never went back to a CRT.  When I bought my PowerBook in 2005, I stopped buying desktop Macs until this past August when I bought a Mac mini to use as a test machine for Snow Leopard Server.  The Mac mini doubles as a test platform, and a personal computer when I need to work with a larger display than is provided by my MacBook Pro.  Every time I go into an Apple store and see one of the new iMacs, I can’t help but want one.  I find myself mentally trying to figure out how to fit the purchase into my budget, and justify it at the same time.

Oh well…  Maybe Someday.

The Complete iMac History — Bondi to Aluminum | Mac|Life.

TUAW reports Psystar’s sells numbers from their attempt to sell Mac clones.  Like a lot of Apple fans, I have watched this legal battle with a lot of interest.  What really confuses me is why a lot of people seem to be hell bent on finding ways to get Apple to license their OS to other manufacturers.  They tried this before in the late 90’s, and it was a total failure.  Apple makes the bulk of their profits through the sale of hardware, not software.  Why else is there only one version of Mac OS X for consumers, and one server version?  Every time someone buys a new Mac, or buys a new version of Mac OS X, they’re getting the “ultimate” version.  Apple does not see the need to nickel and dime their customers for features that should be in the OS anyway.

I don’t have a problem with people wanting to hack Mac OS X to run on unapproved, and unsupported computers.  However, those people do not have the right to re-sale their hacked versions of Mac OS X, and they don’t have a right to expect Apple to support their modifications.  Apple is free to kill off compatibility with unapproved hardware any time they see fit to do so.  Those of us who buy Apple computers enjoy having computers that run well, and are free of the annoying bugs associated with driver issues that plague Windows PC users.  For that, I don’t mind paying more for a Mac.

Psystar’s predictions… they’re a bit off.