this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
105 points (95.7% liked)

Technology

59116 readers
3013 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
105
The End of AppleTalk - August 28th, 2009 (lemmy.capebreton.social)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by videodrome@lemmy.capebreton.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.capebreton.social/post/392224

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.

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 Apple’s own LocalTalk.

AppleTalk was ultimately displaced by TCP/IP-based systems, but for most of the 1980s and ‘90s was Apple's main networking technology.

top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 6xpipe_@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

For those not clear, AppleTalk was created at a time where there was no universal standard in networking. The "standard network" you think of today, a bunch of computers plugged into a router, existed but wasn't the de-facto setup. There was still experimentation going on.

Apple ported some of the AppleTalk features, such as Network Discovery, into Bonjour which was introduced in 2002. Once that became mature, there was no reason to keep AppleTalk around.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Good riddance.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Funny. It’s still supported in macOS despite all this. AFP shares work just fine in Sonoma.

[–] Riven@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you’re confusing AppleTalk with AppleShare. AFP runs fine over TCP/IP and has since way back in the System 6 days.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah, you’re right. I think AP predates me 😅

[–] dansity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Funny how they are maintaining such useless features then ditching ones millions use in their other products.

[–] Aloha_Alaska@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Huh? AppleTalk was, according to the headline, discontinued in 2009 if that’s the useless feature you mean. It wasn’t useless before that, but eventually TCP/IP overtook it and it was no longer practical to run two networking stacks side by side. It is very similar to Microsoft’s extensive use of IPX/SPX up through Windows XP (IIRC XP was the last to include it).

Apple certainly has its flaws, including a bug I reported many years ago in Photos that makes it useless to me, but them discontinuing an aging network protocol nearly 25 years ago seems like a weird thing for you to be upset about, so maybe I misunderstood your post.

[–] DirtyCNC@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 1 year ago

I mean, AppleTalk would be a pretty good contender to TCP/IP if it wasn’t proprietary.