Mac history echoes in current Mac operating systems

Ars Technica mentioned that in macOS Tahoe the venerable old hard disk icons will be replaced with new, more generic, relatively less interesting equivalents. This process also apparently happens with Apple CEOs from time to time. If you are on Sequoia and want to keep them for posterity, you can get them out of /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources. I'm still impressed to this day that someone not only took the time to write actually plausible text copy for the label, but also gave it Torx screws. Get out your T8 MacCracker for this drive:

This isn't the only echo of Macs past in the operating system. The Spacebar also noticed that Apple Symbols still has many old, nay, "obsolete" icons that are only of use to people who still use web browsers on Power Macs.

That's not the half of it, though. There's a bunch more in that file than the ones he spotted. Here's what I saw; perhaps you can find more.

In order: PowerPC logo, composite video out and in, S-video out and in (such as seen on some later PowerBooks), modem port, combined modem/printer port (like on the Duo 2300), printer port, SCSI, Ethernet (also AAUI), three glyphs for Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) ports, a server, rainbow outline Apple, Balloon Help (from System 7), Apple Guide (7.5), 5.25" floppy (I guess mostly for the Apple II folks), two Newton lightbulbs, Newton undo, Newton extras, Newton dates, Newton names, high-density 3.5" disk icon, a confused Compact Mac (possibly to evoke the flashing question mark when it can't find a bootable volume), classic QuickTime logo, busy watch, Apple Pro Speakers port (such as on the iMac G4 or the MDD G4), FireWire, programmer's key icon, and two versions of the reset icon, though these three do have Unicode equivalents or you can also use regular geometric shapes, and sometimes those faced the other way.

(A note on most of these characters is that they don't actually map to any defined Unicode code point; they are unconnected glyphs. Font Book will show them but you can't really copy them anywhere. A tool like Ultra Character Map will let you at least grab a graphical representation and paste it somewhere, as I have done here.)

But that's not all! Feast your eyes on what's still in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources!

What's particularly impressive is the multiple sizes for systems with differently sized screens as options. These are taken from the 1024x1024 144dpi retina versions in Sequoia.

eMac,

iBook G4 12" and 14",

iMac G4 15" (my favourite because it doesn't wear out the arm), 17" and 20",

iMac G5 (recognizeable because no iSight) 17" and 20",

iPhone 2G and 3G (notice the subtly different chrome),

Titanium PowerBook G4,

Alumin(i)um PowerBook G4 12", 15" and 17" (with all-region DVD drive firmware it's the best portable DVD player you can get),

"Graphite" Power Macintosh G4 (doesn't say if it's a Yikes!, Sawtooth or Gigabit Ethernet),

"Quicksilver" Power Macintosh G4,

"Mirrored Drive Doors" Power Macintosh G4, which looks nearly the same,

Xserve G4,

early Mac mini (we'll call it a G4, since we can't see the back),

and who let this thing in?

Why are all these things still in the macOS? My guess, modulo the Blue Screen PC, is trademark purposes.[A number of people have suggested for network serves; some servers will identify themselves as specific computers, which will pick up an icon in this group, and of course the Windows PC for this purpose is well-known. Fine, except that this archive isn't comprehensive for all the possible Mac models that could have participated as a network share point: no G3s, for example, and no Power Mac G5.] These all were used as Apple-specific labeling and could be considered as part of their trade dress, and having these legacy items still in the macOS probably serves some legal purpose if someone were to try to rip off their old IP. It can't be for nostalgia purposes or we'd still be able to run Carbon PowerPC apps on Tahoe like you can still run most Win32 applications on Windows 11. And Apple just doesn't do nostalgia — except in their ads.