(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Macintosh isn't merely a line of computers -- it's the totem of a kind of cult or religion, one of whose sacred rites is Macworld Expo. In January, on the occasion of the Mac's tenth birthday, more than 50,000 of the faithful made the annual pilgrimage to San Francisco's Moscone Center to check out the latest hardware and software from parent Apple Computer and some 500 vendors in its keiretsu -- and then party. The conventioneers were spared a keynote from German-born Apple Chairman Michael Spindler, who avoids the spotlight as assiduously as his predecessor, John Sculley, took to it. Just as well, since Spindler's public speeches are about as stirring as a software manual. Rather, Macworld offered up a panel of glitterati who are trying their hands at interactive multimedia, including actress Shelley Duvall and musician Graham Nash. But beyond a new credit card and eWorld, an on-line service, Apple's line of product introductions was seriously sparse. Many Silicon Valley executives, in fact, opted instead to check out interactivity as displayed at the concurrent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Multimedia is getting its start the same way the VCR did, with plenty of X- rated titles. Macworld, which draws a fair number of teenagers and even kids, had to create a separate room for exhibitors of ''adult'' software for the 18-and-over crowd. One hot new offering: ''Heidi's Girls,'' a CD-ROM hawked by Ivan Nagy, ex-boyfriend of alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. It features women who say they once worked for Fleiss. By contrast, the unveilings by General Magic, a startup founded by several of the engineers who created the original Mac, were suitable for all ages -- software for personal communicators that threatens to eclipse what Apple's Newton can do.