Mac-tan
| Mac OS-tan | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | Mac-tan |
| Other Names | OSX-tan, Shian |
| Lineage | Classic Mac and/or OSX |
| Rival(s) | Windows and 95-tan. |
| Appearance | |
| Height | Varies |
| Hair Color | Blonde |
| Eye Color | Blue-Green |
| Weapon(s) | Error Bombs |
| Design | |
| Creator | Unknown |
| First Appearance | Unknown |
| Origin | Futaba Channel |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Intended to be all Mac OSes. |
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
| Debut | January 24, 1984 (if she represents all Macs) |
| Latest release | 14.4 (March 7, 2024) |
Mac-tan is most commonly viewed as a catch-all OS-tan for all Macintosh systems. She tends to have blonde hair and a platinum-white bodysuit. Early depictions of her especially often feature a large apple on her head.
Details
Personality
Personality-wise, Mac OS-tan is short-tempered, and is known to throw memorable fits of insane rage when angered. She is frequently shown in pictures and comic strips trying to use these bombs against Windows-tans and other miscellaneous characters that annoy her (e.g., Toshiaki, the OSX-kuns). When offered appreciation, however, her temper subsides and she becomes relatively friendly, if perhaps a bit direct.
Appearance
Her most common design has her wearing a platinum-white bodysuit and apple adornment on her head. She almost always has blonde hair and eyes of a cooler color, typically on a blue-green spectrum. Another memorable feature is the bomb she usually carries based on the standard Classic Macintosh error dialog.
History
Mac OS-tan was perhaps the first commonly-known and widely-supported Mac-tan during the early days of the OS-tan phenomenon. Given the popularity of the Windows platform, it is likely that Mac OS-tan was simply meant to be a standalone personification of the Mac Operating System, in the same way that Linux-tan was meant to be a lump-sum of all Linux distributions.
Discourse Over What She Represents
Originally a catch-all for Systems 1-8?
In early drawings, Mac-tan appears in her standard platinum-white body suit (alluding to the iMac/OSX design motif) but, also with a rainbow-colored apple on her head, a throwback to the classic Macintosh. Some manga strips also featured her battling against Windows 95-tan during the OS-tan Wars, during which time only the Classic Macs were available (System 7.5, for example), suggesting that she mainly represented the pre-OS9 Mac OSes at first. Even when she represents OSX, 95-tan is still portrayed as her arch-nemesis.
A catch-all for Mac OSX?
As Mac OS9-tan and additional classic Mac and OSX personifications began to emerge, the identity of the original Mac OS-tan has been subject to extensive variation. In recent years, artists have increasingly personified her specifically as Mac OSX-tan rather than as a classic Mac OS; even the apple she wears on her head is now increasingly drawn as red, or composed of a translucent material reminiscent of the early G3 iMac designs. Some fan-based manga completely embrace and build upon the OSX-tan preference. Nevertheless, the OSX classification is not clear-cut either as numerous cat-themed Mac OSX-tans have appeared since, five of which have achieved near-canon status.
As a legacy from her earliest portrayals, even when she's a catch-all only for OSX, she is still seen wielding error bombs, when the error bombs were only in the Classic Mac OS and not OSX. Instead, OSX has a spinning beach-ball cursor as its loading and error cursor, but that is seldom, if ever depicted in drawings of OSX-tan. One justified possibility could be that although OSX doesn't use error bombs, the early versions of OSX supported dual-booting or emulating Mac OS9.
Her nickname of Shian is the Japanese pronunciation of "Cyan", the codename of the OSX Public Beta; another possible representation that would allow her to represent OSX while co-existing with the other OSX-tans.
or a catch-all for all Macs?
In order to avoid confusion, it is suggested that Mac OS-tan remain as a generic personification of all Macintosh Operating Systems, despite the recent additions of Mac-tans representing specific system releases. This will help preserve the artistic and editorial integrity of the works produced featuring Mac OS-tan, as she is still drawn today, even alongside various Classic and OSX Mac-tans.
Depictions
Mac Manga
The Mac Manga portrays her as being OSX-tan, and in drawings of her and OS9-tan in their childhood, OSX-tan is portrayed as obviously being the younger one.
OSC Fanon
She is a member of House of Mac. She is a rival to the Windows Family, and 95-tan in particular.
Trivia
- Her nickname of "Shian" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Cyan", the codename of the OSX Public Beta.
- As she is most commonly viewed as a all around "Mac" OS-tan it could be said that she is both a hardware-tan and a software-tan.