Imagine a sunflower. Now imagine a computer that looks like one. Now imagine a sunflower style computer that executes an interface that mimics the appearance and sensation of glass. That is what I am looking at, at least online, and I cannot look away from this IMAC G4 Running Liquid Glass.
It is a great mashup. The iconic IMAC G4 launched 23 years ago with OS X and Liquid Glass is part of the public beta macos Tahoe 26, which was launched only a few days ago. The project, seen by 9to5Mac, is a creation of Colby’s leaves, which first took all in one in one, destroyed it and installed an M1 Mac Mini in 2021.
He published about that in X and in this most recent follow -up, he showed some images of how Macos 26 would look on the 15 -inch active Matrix LCD screen of IMAC G4.
Mac Liquid Glass 26 Tahoe looks incredible in the IMAC G4 BTW 🙂↕️ Pic.twitter.com/vksd7OEFD4August 2, 2025
In a word, it looks lovely, but it is not just that the Macos 26 interface tries to mount the fine line between the Imitation of frosted glass and the legible interface elements. I am not sure to be so fascinated if I were not on the first floating screen of the first floating screen, all in one imac.
I have a certain affinity for this system because it takes me back to a crucial moment in the history of technology.
It was a recession, not a good time to calculate or even the Internet, which was experiencing the consequences of the rapid deflation of the point -point bubble. Our industry needed something.
The last spark of design and development had emerged, as expected, from Apple, that under the guidance of the CEO that returns Steve Jobs introduced the first imac all into a caramel color that was a design and commercial success.
Things had been relatively quiet since then, with only the original iPod, more than one electronic consumer device, to inspire Apple minions and device enthusiasts in general. On the computer side, they were the young. Many of Windows Whitebox’s PC companies had been acquired or disappeared (Gateway, Emachines, Zeos), and what the rest of the industry was producing were mostly PC of little inspiring towers.
Flowering technology
The IMAC arrived as a cover story in Time magazine on January 14, 2002. They spent weeks before the unofficial presentation of the product in MacWorld, so we all shout about history and marvel at the images of this completely unique system.
With only a diameter of 10.4 inches in diameter, a white circular base, dome, chromed arm and thin screen of the panel, the IMAC G4 did not look at anything like the last imac or any of the PC all in one that fill the best shelves of Best Buy, Circuit City and Micro Center.
The design was quite intentional. Jobs reported to pass the conversation he had in his flower garden in the backyard with the then Apple Jony Ive designer about how the new IMAC should differ from the previous model and possibly still quite popular.
“Why have a flat screen if you are going to do all this on your back? Why stop a computer on its side when you really want to be horizontal and on the floor? Let each element be what it is, be faithful to yourself.” Instead of resembling the old imac, the thing should look more like flowers in the garden. Jobs said: “It should look like a sunflower.”
And he does so. The IMAC G4 (for the CPU inside) is possibly the closest to the plant of all IMACS before or since then. The new imacs still have a floating screen, but the base is flat and without components, which now fit perfectly into the body of the screen panel. Any other design, and Colby’s leaves could probably not have squeezed the MAC mini components within the IMAC classic.
Closely and even out of reach
A few months after the article of Time magazine and the launch of MacWorld, an IMAC G4 finally arrived at PC magazine, where I worked in 2002. In person, it was even more impressive. Our first look praised the design of the new system, although we were not excited with the “insubstantial” keyboard and the mouse of a button. Even so, the grouped software that included IMOVIE, iTunes, IDVD (the system could record CD and DVD) and Iphoto stood out among PC offers.
My romanticism of that design is a direct result of its brevity. Apple moved away from the appearance of sunflower in two years, replacing it with the IMAC G5, which established the design language for all future imacs.
However, I have reasons to think about the IMAC G4 from time to time. In many of my weekly walks with my wife, we headed through our small city, walking through all business shop windows. Within one, quite close to a window, there is an IMAC G4. I have never seen it activated, but every time, I fantasize about marching to the business and asking the owner to sell it to me.
Maybe someday. And then I suppose I will destroy it and run macos 26.
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