e5 – At Ease

We revisit At Ease, the multiple user management system in System 7. Our discussion of its interface leads us on a historical journey through Apple's 22-year quest to perfect a grid of buttons.

We revisit At Ease, the multiple user management system in System 7. Our discussion of its interface leads us on a historical journey through Apple's 22-year quest to perfect a grid of buttons.

Links for this episode:

At EaseWikipediaApple wikiainfo and screenshotsBeOSpegman

System 7.1PExtensions ManagerAt Ease FAQStudents are holding down the space bar at startup to open the Extensions Manager. Then they disable (deselect. At Ease Startup. The next time the computer restarts, it goes straight to the Finder. How can I prevent my students from getting access to the Finder, yet still run System 7.5 and At Ease?At Ease for WorkgroupsAppleCD Audio PlayerNumber Munchers [playable Apple II version on archive.org!]Slug-Man: The Video Game
(No link, sadly. It was a skinned version of Joust)RescueTimeSimple Finder (still exists in OS X)Panels view in Mac OS 9

Non-sponsor: Ram Doubler 2 by Connectix

Other grid-of-buttons Apple interfacesLauncher (good info, bad formatting)Pop-up windows in Mac OS 8 [Google Books]View as buttons in Mac OS 8.5Launchpad(not to be confused with Launchbar, Launch Center Pro, etc.)comparisons to At Ease [1] [2]SpringboardF4 Launchpad key on current Apple keyboards