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What Happened on August 28th
August 28, 2009
The End of AppleTalk
With the release of Mac OS X 10.6, "Snow Leopard," Apple discontinued its support for the AppleTalk local area networking system. Introduced in 1985 as a quick way to connect Apple computers and peripherals to each other, AppleTalk was a low-cost, medium performance network, perfect for homes and many offices.
@TheNewsOwl My first computer was the Apple IIe. Print Shop with our dot matrix printer and a game that used just two arrow buttons and the space bar.
The basic AppleTalk hardware was built into every Mac computer so networks could be established without any prior setup or need for a centralized router or server. Apple Talk networks could also be connected to each other, forming internets, or use a variety of physical media like Ethernet, Token Ring or Appleβs own LocalTalk.
AppleTalk was ultimately displaced by TCP/IP-based systems, but for most of the 1980s and β90s was Apple's main networking technology.