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From: merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: McIntosh <=> MacIntosh
Message-ID: <6935@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Aug-87 22:06:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.6935
Posted: Mon Aug 24 22:06:11 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Aug-87 02:01:49 EDT
References: <628@cup.portal.com> <8708220352.AA24519@cogsci.berkeley.edu> <7831@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 37
Summary: Well, the way I heard it...

In article <7831@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, khayo@sonia.cs.ucla.edu (Erazm J. Behr) writes:
> >I've seen an early "Mac" description that said "McIntosh" (McIntosh, as
> >in the edible apple)  since this later changed to "MacIntosh" (As in
> >the raincoat), one must wonder.  Apple computer selling Apples, yes.
> >Raincoats, no.
> >The rumor I heard (rumor, now, not fact) was that someone at Apple
> >misstyped McIntosh and it ended up sticking.  Hi... I own a "Mc". :-)
> 
>    An important reason for switching was (I think, I'm an outsider...)
> the possible trademark conflict with McIntosh Laboratories, makers of
> high-end audio stuff. Most every official Apple publication mentioning
> the Mac has a notice on the copyright page saying "McIntosh is a ..." -
> take a look at IM, for instance.
>    Sorry about the above, but since there is no comp.mac.gossip ...
>                                          Eric Behr

I heard somewhere that the reason that it is Macintosh (the only thing
capitalized is the first letter) had to do with a spelling error in a
number of Apple internal memos.  Someone noted this spelling mistake
and decided that they liked the spelling mistake better than the correct
spelling.  And, thus, a trademark was born.

Speaking of which, a couple of intriguing things struck me recently.
Macintoshes don't exist anymore.  The base model is the Macintosh Plus.
The Macintosh came with 128K of RAM.  The "Fat Mac" had 512K.  I suppose
it's similar in concept to the Apple II.  The other amusing name thing
struck me as I bumped into one of the old Apple ads for the Macintosh
which was talking about teaching silicon chips about people and how this
new computer was not called the ZQX-3 or the ZipChip 5000, but it was
called simple "Macintosh."  Now, of course, we have Macintosh XLs, SEs,
512KEs, Pluses, and IIs.  Sigh.

(The other amusing name story I heard had to do with the Lisa.  The name
was a shot at the people using PCs, XTs, ATs, RTs, and various other
acronyms.  The name LISA stands for "Let's Invent Some Acronym.")
--
"I hear violins..."                       Peter Merchant (merchant@dartvax.UUCP)