Imagine a sunflower. Now imagine a computer that looks like one. Now imagine a sunflower style computer running an interface that imitates the appearance of the glass. This is what I look at – online at least – and I cannot look away from this liquid glass in the course of iMac G4.
It is completely the mashup. The iMac Imac G4 was launched 23 years ago with OS X and Liquid Glass is part of the public beta of MacOS Tahoe 26, which launched just a few days ago. The project, spotted by 9TO5MAC, is an original idea of Colby Sheets, which first took the all-in-one 2002, emptied it and installed it a M1 Mac Mini in 2021.
He posted on this subject on X and in this most recent follow -up, displayed some images of what MacOS 26 would look like on the LCD screen with a floating active matrix of 15 inch of the iMac G4.
Liquid glass in macOS 26 Tahoe looks incredible on the iMac G4 Btw 🙂↕️ Pic.twitter.com/vksd7oefd4August 2, 2025
In a word, it looks charming, but it is not only that the macOS 26 interface tries to mount the fine line between the mimicry in frosted glass and the readable interface elements. I am not sure that I would also be fascinated if it was not the all-in-one iMac, while being forgotten.
I have a certain affinity for this system because it brings me back to a pivotal moment in the history of technology.
It was a recession, not the ideal time for IT or even the Internet, which lived the consequences of rapid deflation of the Dot-Com bubble. Our industry needed something.
The last spark of design and development had come, without surprise, from Apple, which, under the directives of the CEO back, Steve Jobs, introduced the first all-in-one candy color which was both a design and a commercial blow.
Things have been relatively silent since then, with only the original iPod, plus an electronic device for the general public, to inspire Apple minions and gadgets in general. On the computer side, it was the slump. Many Windows Whitebox PC companies had been acquired or disappeared (Gateway, Emachines, Zeos), and what the rest of the industry produced was mainly PCs of Tour without interest.
Flowering technology
The iMac arrived as a cover magazine in Time on January 14, 2002. It took weeks before the unofficial unveiling of Macworld’s product, so we all went out on history and we were amazed by the images of this very unique system.
With only a diameter of 10.4 inch, a circular white base, dome-shaped, a chrome arm and a thin floating panel screen, the iMac G4 did not look like the latest iMac or one of the all-in-one PCs, then filling the best purchase, City City and Micro Center Shelves.
The design was quite intentional. Jobs told the conversation he had in his backyard flower garden with Apple designer Jony Ive on how the new iMac should differ from the previous model and probably still quite popular.
“Why have a flat display if you are going to glomach all these things on his back? Why keep a computer on the side when he really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what he is, be faithful to himself.” Instead of looking like the old iMac, the thing should look more like flowers in the garden. Jobs said, “It should look like a sunflower.”
And this is the case. The iMac G4 (for the CPU inside) is undoubtedly the most plants of all iMacs before or since. The new iMacs always have a floating screen, but the base is flat and devoid of components, which now adapt well inside the body of the screen panel. Any other design and Colby Sheets would probably not have been able to tighten Mac Mini Components inside the classic iMac.
Closely and always out of reach
A few months after the article in 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 delighted with the “unsuccessful” keyboard and from the mouse to a button. However, the group software that included Imovie, iTunes, IDVD (the system could burn CDs and DVDs), and Iphoto stood out from PC offers.
My romanticism of this conception is the direct result of its brevity. Apple moved away from the sunflower look within two years, replacing it with the iMac G5, who established the design language for all future imacs.
However, I have reasons to think of the iMac G4 from time to time. On many of my weekly walks with my wife, we make our way through our small town, walking by all commercial windows. Inside, quite close to a window, there is an iMac G4. I have never seen him on, but each time, I fantasize to walk in the business and ask the owner to sell it to me.
Maybe one day. And then I guess I will empty it and execute MacOS 26.
