RIP Energy Saver. What has stuck around from the old days?

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Energy Saver goes way back to at least System 7 days. It's now been replaced with Battery, from what I can tell from system preferences screenshots. It was one of those few things that have stuck around as the Mac has evolved. It's in the camp of the Stickies app, the startup chime (so glad it's back without having to use Terminal!), "The Macintosh Desktop Experience," and Macintosh HD. I see that Stickies has stuck around (anyone have a screenshot?), as did The Macintosh Desktop Experience. How about Macintosh HD?

For those Mac veterans like me, what reminds you of System 7, Mac OS 8, and Mac OS 9 that are still around today?

Pic of the icon of Energy Saver back in System 7.5: (about half way down on the left)

Pic of Mac OS X 10.0 "Cheetah" Energy Saver (icon):

Pic of macOS 10.15 Catalina Energy Saver (icon):

macOS 11.0 Big Sur

 

[ArPe]

Macintosh HD is still around. Ideally macOS should detect if the internal OS drive is an HDD or SSD and use the relevant default drive name and icon.

Would also be good when you plug in a USB drive the Finder would show an icon that looks exactly like the model of the drive you connected.

Stickies is still around and Windows 10 has copied it. I stopped using it years ago in favour of Notes.

The bulb icon for Energy Saver never made sense because it was an incandescent light bulb and there are no bulbs in the computer anyway

I’m glad the icon has changed and the color green is used as a reminder about greening devices and energy production

 

[casperes1996]

I actually feel like a lot of macOS Big Sur, once I started using it, reminded me of old school OS X. Not so much OS 9 and prior, but it reminds me of the Tiger days. Rounded, some skeuomorphism back, in the neumorphic way, Apple playing with colour and "fun" a lot again. It wouldn't surprise me if the more "fun" feel also carries over to hardware trying out more things again, like the iMac G4, and the very colourful early iBooks and G3 iMacs and such. Though still with a lot of sleek minimalism in some way. It feels light and playful like I feel Apple was a lot back then. And the move to Apple Silicon feels a lot more like the move away from PPC than I had expected, even reusing the name Rosetta, which I love.

Regarding things that are more or less the same; There are some updates to it basically every release, but Chess is still there in a similar fashion to how it's been for almost an eternity. Aside from the window chrome, Grapher is very similar to how it's always been; Folder Actions, Services, AppleScript, Automator - There are some surface level differences but the classics of OS X remain. Now again it's not so much OS 9 as it is OS X, but it's certainly classic Mac. But regarding the OS 9 era, the way that there are coming a lot more buttons to the menu bar, optionally hidden in control centre, kinda feels a little like that little bar at the bottom left of OS 9.
I've only found two apps that have yet to get the new square icon set in the build-in apps though. Network Utility and Wireless Diagnostics; They are the same as in Catalina.

While Big Sur has definitely given a massive redesign to everything, it is still very much Mac OS. And the System Preferences Display Scaling menu still says "Here's to the crazy ones"

 

[actionmarker]

Energy Saver goes way back to at least System 7 days. It's now been replaced with Battery, from what I can tell from system preferences screenshots. It was one of those few things that have stuck around as the Mac has evolved. It's in the camp of the Stickies app, the startup chime (so glad it's back without having to use Terminal!), "The Macintosh Desktop Experience," and Macintosh HD. I see that Stickies has stuck around (anyone have a screenshot?), as did The Macintosh Desktop Experience. How about Macintosh HD?

For those Mac veterans like me, what reminds you of System 7, Mac OS 8, and Mac OS 9 that are still around today?

Pic of the icon of Energy Saver back in System 7.5: (about half way down on the left)

View attachment 928477

Pic of Mac OS X 10.0 "Cheetah" Energy Saver (icon):

View attachment 928478

Pic of macOS 10.15 Catalina Energy Saver (icon):

View attachment 928479

macOS 11.0 Big Sur

View attachment 928486

What about if you not using a battery powered Mac? Is there no energy saving preferences?

 

[ct2k7]

Energy Saver still exists on desktops, at least it does on my Mac Pro.

 

[benthewraith]

The new battery icon in the menu bar shows no options for showing battery life percentage. Guess that's another thing gone. You can click on the battery and it will show you, but no option for displaying the percentage in the menu bar itself.

 

[casperes1996]

The new battery icon in the menu bar shows no options for showing battery life percentage. Guess that's another thing gone. You can click on the battery and it will show you, but no option for displaying the percentage in the menu bar itself.

The feature still exists; It's in System Preferences under Dock and Menu Bar

 

[mikecwest]

But regarding the OS 9 era, the way that there are coming a lot more buttons to the menu bar, optionally hidden in control centre, kinda feels a little like that little bar at the bottom left of OS 9.

Ah the Control Strip. I remember that there was a commercial product that was similar in System Software 8 that did the same thing. I don't remember the name, but I remember in 7 or 8 that grade, using ResEdit and changing a setting from "activated NO" to "Activated "YES", and getting the full version for free Of course when MacOS 9 came out, it wasn’t needed anymore. I miss ResEdit, it was open so easy to make a free demo the full version with a simple file edit.
[automerge]1593359138[/automerge]

The feature still exists; It's in System Preferences under Dock and Menu Bar

I did that, and it doesn’t show the percentage, at least not without clicking on it.

 

[casperes1996]

Ah the Control Strip. I remember that there was a commercial product that was similar in System Software 8 that did the same thing. I don't remember the name, but I remember in 7 or 8 that grade, using ResEdit and changing a setting from "activated NO" to "Activated "YES", and getting the full version for free Of course when MacOS 9 came out, it wasn’t needed anymore. I miss ResEdit, it was open so easy to make a free demo the full version with a simple file edit.
[automerge]1593359138[/automerge]


I did that, and it doesn’t show the percentage, at least not without clicking on it.

Yes, the control strip. What ResEdit did is basically the same as If you enter a .app bundle and edit the resources in there though. ResEdit just edited the resource fork, and the resources in a .app bundle basically simulate a resource fork. Depending on how an app is coded, the "activate full version" trick could still work by modifying a plist entry in the app bundle, and I've even seen it work. It's not the most secure way of coding it, but with a low stakes app it's good enough and if I use an app a lot I'd want to pay the asking price anyway, even if I might initially start out hacking around it for fun.

Have you enabled this?

It shows percentages in the menu bar perfectly fine for me without clicking it:

Also; in unrelated news; The new screenshot to clipboard shortcuts are pretty cool, though the default shortcut requires claw fingers
[automerge]1593360015[/automerge]
Oh, haha, it appears screenshooting the whole menu bar ignores the status section at the right and just blanks it out.

Here we go:

 

[simonmet]

Yes, the control strip. What ResEdit did is basically the same as If you enter a .app bundle and edit the resources in there though. ResEdit just edited the resource fork, and the resources in a .app bundle basically simulate a resource fork. Depending on how an app is coded, the "activate full version" trick could still work by modifying a plist entry in the app bundle, and I've even seen it work. It's not the most secure way of coding it, but with a low stakes app it's good enough and if I use an app a lot I'd want to pay the asking price anyway, even if I might initially start out hacking around it for fun.

I didn't realise (or forgot) that Apple made ResEdit. For some reason I didn't think it was something they'd do, or release publicly anyway.

I also miss ResExcellence. It died with OS X, then came back briefly before dying again. The website is still around but it was never like the good old days. People just aren't modding as much anymore probably. Back then we had more time on our hands I guess, with the internet being what it was. Now we can watch YouTube/Netflix and download movies for entertainment.

 

[casperes1996]

I didn't realise Apple made ResEdit. For some reason I didn't think it was something they'd do, or release publicly anyway.

ResEdit was made as a developer tool originally. It also included features a bit like Interface Builder for Xcode, though the way Interface Builder is, stems from NeXT

 

[mikecwest]

Yes, the control strip. What ResEdit did is basically the same as If you enter a .app bundle and edit the resources in there though. ResEdit just edited the resource fork, and the resources in a .app bundle basically simulate a resource fork. Depending on how an app is coded, the "activate full version" trick could still work by modifying a plist entry in the app bundle, and I've even seen it work. It's not the most secure way of coding it, but with a low stakes app it's good enough and if I use an app a lot I'd want to pay the asking price anyway, even if I might initially start out hacking around it for fun.

Have you enabled this?
View attachment 928740
It shows percentages in the menu bar perfectly fine for me without clicking it:



View attachment 928741
Also; in unrelated news; The new screenshot to clipboard shortcuts are pretty cool, though the default shortcut requires claw fingers
[automerge]1593360015[/automerge]
Oh, haha, it appears screenshooting the whole menu bar ignores the status section at the right and just blanks it out.

Here we go:

View attachment 928744

Yeah, ResEdit did basic do the same as editing files in the app bundle. I just think that apps are coded a bit differently now, and don't rely on a simple yes/no in a plist for full versioning. I recall other times, it would have an expiration date for a trial, which I would set to some date in the distant future.

I feel silly, I only had SHOW IN MENU BAR, selected, but not "show percentage." thanks!

 

[casperes1996]

Yeah, ResEdit did basic do the same as editing files in the app bundle. I just think that apps are coded a bit differently now, and don't rely on a simple yes/no in a plist for full versioning. I recall other times, it would have an expiration date for a trial, which I would set to some date in the distant future.

I feel silly, I only had SHOW IN MENU BAR, selected, but not "show percentage." thanks!

Most apps are yeah. There are still a few that check simply, but a lot will either check with a server with some generated hash or something like that.

Hehe there you go then, happy to help

 

[mikecwest]

ResEdit was made as a developer tool originally. It also included features a bit like Interface Builder for Xcode, though the way Interface Builder is, stems from NeXT

You could even cheat on games sometimes, in the preference file, it often stored values like high scores, in game money, etc...It was very often clearly labeled an unencrypted. Some more secure one, would just to obfusticte the values with a misleading value name, like "points" might be replaced with "kDkdsoDj" or something. You could check your saved point level, and "search" for that value instead.

 

[MikeyCopeland]

Now that Energy Saver has gone, does anyone know where switching between graphics cards has gone? You used to be able to use dynamic switching or always use discrete, but I can't find that option on Big Sur.

Edit: Ignore me, clearly I'm blind.

 

[ErikGrim]