1984 Apple's First Macintosh Commercial
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN mostly uses it as a cultural reference, either as a favorite tech ad or as irony when criticizing Apple's later restrictiveness.
What it is
The famous 1984 Apple Macintosh television commercial, framed as a rebellion against an Orwellian Big Brother. This copy was uploaded to YouTube just after the site launched.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2008 to 2017.
What Hacker News said
Cites froo · 2008-09 · on “Apple applies for patent on "sneakers" DRM”
You sir, are awesome, I would give you triple karma if I could. For those who don't "get" the quote, it's the infamous 1984 Apple ad, directed by Ridley Scott. Links below for reference [this video] [LINK] (television_commercial)
Cites sarvesh · 2009-02 · on “Ask HN: Favorite Technology Company Superbowl Ads?”
The Apple 1984 commercial is my favorite [this video] you are releasing something as significant as the Macintosh I think it's too much money.
Cites jmatt · 2010-03 · on “Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement”
For those you who weren't around in 1984... Or didn't pay attention in high school english or decades old super bowl ads. Apple's commercial: [this video] And the obligatory wiki link: [LINK]
Cites 0xdeadbeefbabe · 2017-06 · on “Gopher-OS: A Proof of Concept OS Written in Go”
> Why care about OS:es when there is no room for anyone on that level of abstraction apart from a handful developers at MS, Apple and Google? There is as much room as there are people frustrated with the "state of the art." Edit: Have you seen this apple commercial [this video] . Yes it is from 1984 and you might think it doesn't apply.
Critical jhancock · 2009-09 · on “Our app got rejected again. We're trying to figure out why.”
"1984" Apple ad. [this video] It really does not matter if you think they are right or wrong. Watch the vid and decide if that's what you want to attach your startup fortunes to. I can understand why some funds would have been motivated to focus on iPhone apps last year. At this point, I wouldn't touch an iPhone startup without an ironclad insider contract with Apple.
Critical vaksel · 2010-04 · on “Apple takes stance on consciousness”
Apple lately has been reminding me of what they were supposedly railing about in that 1984 commercial. [this video]
Critical elblanco · 2010-04 · on “App Store Bans Pulitzer-Winning Satirist. For Satire”
> The whole hammer throwing thing from the 80s just seems so ironic now. [this video] I'm not even sure how to reinterpret it today. The Big Brother figure speaks of a garden of pure ideology, and it appears the woman is an app who is about to get rejected by the app store cops. Is the meaning of the hammer throw that I should go get an Android phone so I don't have to subject myself to the approval of the Big Brother character?
Critical trustfundbaby · 2012-06 · on “Why are Apple laptops becoming harder to take apart?”
What I don't understand is why this is an either-or proposition ... was it really that impossible to build these laptops without alienating the 'enthusiasts' ... people who actually want to swap out hard drives, or RAM? I just spent two years transitioning my life away from windows, which I used for about 15 years, to OS X just to suddenly find that I can't run out and buy a new SSD hard drive to try on my system if I wanted to ... brilliant. The best part is, If reading HN threads where people are basically agreeing with this nonsense, because Apple made the decision. Thats right, just keep taking away choices from the user until the entire company and its customers become one huge parody.