Macintosh System 3
 | This article is a work in progress. …well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editors’ notes. |
| Macintosh System 3-tan | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | Mac OS3-tan |
| Other Names | System 3 |
| Faction | House of Mac |
| Lineage | Classic Mac |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 130 cm (4'3") |
| Hair Color | black with multicolor streaks |
| Eye Color | silver |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | Oct. 2006 |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Macintosh System 3.0-3.3* |
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
| Debut | January 16 1986 |
| Latest release | v3.3 (January 1987) |
Technical details
Macintosh System 3 was released along with the Mac Plus on 16 Jan, 1986 and introduced several new technologies to the Mac OS- SCSI, ADB support, Hypercard and complete support for the Hierarchical File System. System 3.0 was well-regarded, but System 3.1 was infamous for its bugginess that System 3.2 was quickly released to fix them.
System 3.3 was released the same time as System 4, and has the same Finder version (5.4), but System 3.3 was released as part of AppleShare 1.0. System 3.4 was released as part of AppleShare 2.0 in early 1988, and uses Finder 6.1.
Character details
General description
*note: This character mainly represents System 3.0-3.3. There is a separate character representing System 3.4.
Macintosh System 3-tan is represented as a girl with long black hair with multicolored streaks, and wears a colorful outfit consisting of a green hat, yellow scarf, an orange checkered dress with white sleeves, long socks with red and purple stripes, with sapphire slippers. She has a very cheerful, friendly and outgoing personality, and is a great networker.
Her favorite activities are shopping and making simple electronic gadgets. She is more efficient at work than her predecessors, but she is klutzy, has a huge fear of bugs, and is one of the least stable Mac-tans, referencing System 3.1's buggyness. Her stability improved after her faulty upgrade was fixed, but she is still worried about messing up, and is not always confident showing off her abilities.
Family and relationships
She gets along very well with Mac OS9-kun, but is overprotective of him because he is not much of a fighter. She is generally diplomatic towards the Windows-tans, and can get along with some of the more diplomatic ones when their families have meetings. However, she has a rivalry with fellow klutz ME-tan. Ironically, System 3-tan and ME-tan have a lot in common and could be good friends.
Of her relatives, she gets along best with System 3.4-tan, System 4-tan, Mac OS 8-tan, Mac OS 9-tan, and Mac OSX Tiger-tan.
System 2
She and System 2-tan get along now, but System 2-tan used to dislike her, since she was jealous over System 3-tan's innovations, and felt overshadowed by her. System 2-tan thought she did not contribute enough compared to System 3-tan, but has been willing to get along with her by the time of System 4-tan's debut.
System 3.4
System 3.4-tan has more powerful abilities than her, and was meant to continue the specialized networking role that System 3-tan created. She was happy to help System 3.4-tan learn how to harness her powers and to continue the role, and served as her mentor.
System 4
She and System 4-tan also get along now, but they did not at first due to ideological disagreements, and System 4-tan worrying about whether she would be good enough to follow up on System 3-tan's success. Their disagreements are a reference to System 4 being the earliest Mac OS version to be supported by the Macintosh II, which had an open and expandable architecture compared to the compact Macs that System 3 was limited to running.
Abilities
System 3-tan is a competent melee fighter with improvised weaponry, and is physically stronger than she looks. She also acquired psychic abilities, and is capable of telepathy and telekinesis. Her telepathic abilities are a reference to AppleShare 1.0, and System 3.3's inclusion with it, as a specialized release as a networking and file server OS. She uses telepathy to quickly share information.
Other Notes
Her love of bright colors, and wearing such a colorful outfit originated due to an error on her creator's behalf after reading a source stating that System 3.0 was the first Mac OS version to support color. Other sources confirmed that System 4 was the earliest Mac OS for the Macintosh II, and therefore the first version to support color. Despite originating from an error, her character design was still kept, to set herself apart from her less-daring predecessors.
History and background
See also: