What made you buy your first mac?

[teabgs]

I was just thinking about when I got my first mac and wondered what reason other people had for getting their first macs.

I got mine 7 years ago. I'm on my second mac now, and Will be purchasing my 3rd this summer when the new towers are released. I got mine because I wanted to do video, animation, and graphics work. Before that my family had had an Apple IIGS and a pentium. I didnt think macs were good but after some reasearch my grandfather found out that for graphics and video mac was the way to go. So I got the mac and fell in love. This led to one of my best friends purchasing a mac himself. He's on his 2nd too.

Well, why all of you get macs for the first time?
Also, if you don't have one and are going to get one, why is it that you'll be getting one?

[Backtothemac]

BSOD

[evildead]

I grew up with Mac's and I just kept using them Im on my 3rd personaly owned one now, but thanks to Mac head dad... I have been a user for a very long time.

[eyelikeart]

I decided to take a computer graphic design course for the hell of it...they were running I think 7100's with 60 & 70 mhz chips...ha ha ha...

so anyway....my mom decided I should have my own when I was all excited about learning to draw on a computer....and she got me a Motorola Starmax 3000...

[AlphaTech]

I was introduced to them at college (back in 1988) and lusted after one ever since. Finally after being a working stiff for several years, I was able to get one of my own (in 1997). It was a PowerCenter Pro 210 (yeah, a clone). I then got the PowerBook G3 Lombard, then the Pismo, and now I have a Rev A. Titanium. All have been the fastest produced at the time, and I have ended up maxing out the RAM in each before I was done.

Now I am waiting for either a slick, new PowerBook or a G5 tower to come out. I am looking at sometime next year, so I can wait and see.

I will be buying Mac's for as long as they are in production. :D

[Taft]

I bought my first because I went to college and couldn't use my dad's Mac anymore. My family has been using Apple products since the Apple II and we haven't looked back.

I just couldn't survive in the PC dominated world of college without a Mac!!

Matthew

[Beej]

I just grew up with Macs. My family bought a Mac Plus when I was 2 or 3, and we used that for like a dozen years, until I started to become a bit more computer-savvy and convinced them to buy a 7200/120.

Then we just kept upgrading... it's an addiction now.

[Hemingray]

I was pretty much like you, Beej, except I was about 5 when my dad bought his office five Mac Pluses back in 1985-6. I always got the hand-me-downs from the office when they upgraded. (My dad runs a graphic design business). I got an LCII in about 1991, and a IIfx in 1997. I was surfing the internet with a 2400 baud modem!! Then my dad got me a Umax C500 in early 1998, which was about the crappiest computer ever... so when the G4's rolled around, well, that was too much of a temptation to resist. :) So technically, the crappiness of my Umax C500 prompted me to buy my first Mac.

[King Cobra]

I used to watch my dad use old computers, all the way back to System 3. I even was able to draw and scale some rather nice 2D graphics on it. I even handed in an extra credit assignment on that computer (I am talking real early 90s!)

Since then, I became hooked on Macs, but I was not going to share the Quadra or Performa my dad was using to do typed projects or for long, written assignments. So one day I woke up for my birthday for when I turned 13 (maybe 14), and I got a 233 Bondi Blue iMac.

Now, I am 16 and I use the 0.5GHz Cube.
__________________

It does not take a genius to figure it out . . . just someone who uses a Mac.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by King Cobra
Now, I am 16 and I use the 0.5GHz Cube.


I like it how he calls it the "half-gigahertz" Cube...he he he.....clever way of putting it! :p

[mac15]

I'm kinda lucky I didn't buy my imac
I won it in a competition (lucky me)
it's the best and only thing i have one

[blackpeter]

A Dell desktop system loaded with Windows ME.

Bought my G4 533 April 1 2001.

[jaykk]

Mac OS X, the unix on a desktop - Found very interesting, got my first ever mac in December - TiBook 550 Mhz.. i exclusively run Mac OS X, because i have never used 9.x ..

BTW, I replied to apple as well - "Apple - PC Users: Share what's on your mind" -> http://www.apple.com/hardware/pcusers/

[Beej]

Originally posted by tfaz1
Bought my G4 533 April 1 2001. Ha! April 1? Is that a joke? :D

[jefhatfield]

one of my friends sold me his mac and before i knew it i became so hooked i eventually became a techie and changed the direction in my life...i got so techie i dropped out of mba school and swore i would never want to be a "suit" and started to wear shorts and t-shirts and gave jolt cola a try and almost bought a star trek video...and i have not worn a necktie since then:D

[jefhatfield]

:D

[resm]

My first Mac I bought myself was a G4/533 MHZ and that's when using a computer started to be fun,also because I only used it on cable connection.

Anything else I used before...also Mac's...where bought by someone else (Office) and didn't realy exite me, eccept for the fact that I was able to find out how to use them in no time.

Only after the first G4 I fall in love with the Mac and have now recently bought the iMac/800 and that one has become my addiction.

I do not want to recall the language I use when I work in my office on a peeeceee! :( (censored)

The only thing that I don't like with the iMac are the speakers.

They are far below the total quality of the iMac

The sound quality is not what I would have expected from a package like the iMac . They look cool...and that's about all.

Apple should realy do something about that if they wan't this to be the digital hub everybody should have at home.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
one of my friends sold me his mac and before i knew it i became so hooked i eventually became a techie and changed the direction in my life...i got so techie i dropped out of mba school and swore i would never want to be a "suit" and started to wear shorts and t-shirts and gave jolt cola a try and almost bought a star trek video...and i have not worn a necktie since then:D

jef.....that's really a great story!!! :p

how wild it is that u dropped out of mba school.....refusing to be a "suit" and wear shorts & t-shirts....jolt cola....u know they still make the stuff....ha ha ha...

I think that's what I love so much about what I do...I don't have to look like a billion other people....suits...ties....blah....t-shirts & khakis for me.....sometimes in the summer I wear sandles to work...they love that...

people expect laid back and not so "stiff" when they know u are an artist....I didn't realize techs had that same luxury?

[Beej]

Hate to say, but there are probably a lot more people in the world that don't wear suits to work. So you don't look like a billion other people, but, at the same time, you look like 5 billion others!

Crazy.

[Macmaniac]

Our family got our mac because my school used them, sometime in 93. I have been a mac person ever since, despite my middle school not having macs.

[mymemory]

I got my first Mac back in 1995 is I'm right. It was a Powerbook 150. I got it because I was playing with a band and I was using an Atari 512 ST, that computer didn't have hard drive and I have to load the songs via floppy. I had 1024 K in ram (for the soft and 2 songs) and you can imagine loading songs between songs!.

So, I got my first Mac because of that and used Digital Performer, it works so beautifly that I sold that one and got a PowerBook 5300. Then I got the 9600, then I sold the Powerbook and got a the beige G3 desktop. I sold both of them and got the G4 (this one) and the lates was the Pismo last year.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by eyelikeart


jef.....that's really a great story!!! :p

how wild it is that u dropped out of mba school.....refusing to be a "suit" and wear shorts & t-shirts....jolt cola....u know they still make the stuff....ha ha ha...

I think that's what I love so much about what I do...I don't have to look like a billion other people....suits...ties....blah....t-shirts & khakis for me.....sometimes in the summer I wear sandles to work...they love that...

people expect laid back and not so "stiff" when they know u are an artist....I didn't realize techs had that same luxury?

thanks eye,

actually, it depends what kind of techie you are...network and desktop techies often have to climb under desks and install stuff so they often get dirty or dusty...and some network people have to drill holes and work with fiberglass between walls which is awful (but pay is good for cablers around here)

the higher up network people, the sys admins, if in a multi tiered department, may not have to do the messy work of network engineers and might only have to let other people do that stuff so they can dress up a little

and cio, who the network admins and head programmers report to, usually are "suits" and do more accounting and management than they do tech work and many of these bosses wear expensive suits and some of them are not even technical in any way shape or form (i had a friend who was the manager of the entire tech department, was the network administrator, and the help desk technician in a small company of fewer than 100 people and i have heard a few of the posters here are one person IT departments)

in the book, "dress for success", the author mentions how silicon valley types are not very good dressers compared to their neighbors in san francisco, which is the snazziest place on the west coast and very in touch with the fashion/beauty industry

there is this one techie from the old days who got hired on the agreement that if he was to work the graveyard shift, he could work naked and this has been a popular urban myth in silicon valley (with the advent of romote access service, pc side though, makes it possible for techies to do their work from home (naked) which has become common because some companies can't pay the rent for an actual building and there is a lot of commercial space open and empty (so come over here y'all and pull the valley out of the slump)

[eyelikeart]

I know what u mean....my step-father is for the most part a tech....works for the USDA....does systems...networks....fixing...troubleshooting....building....anything u can imagine.....he's even had to wear static-free suits on occasion...

he pretty much wears jeans & a sport shirt to work each day....depending on what tasks he's going to be performing. I know exactly what u mean by climbing under things.....getting into ceilings....etc, etc...

one cool perk is he gets to go to Atlanta every few months to practice procedures....should there ever be a crash or blackout of some enormous proportion...

and I suppose he does some of his work "naked" since he has a govt. issued laptop that he uses to access his workstation from home....he he he...

[jefhatfield]

sounds like your stepfather has a cool networking job...usda...so that is what people in the field call enterprise level networking

if a massive network(s) like that goes down, a lot of people are in for some serious overtime because mostly emterprise level networks are, you guessed it, pc networks

actually, linux would work great on that scale if accepted, but like we all know, microsoft cornered that market, too

eye....congrats on 1.5 thousand posts!:D

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
eye....congrats on 1.5 thousand posts!:D

thanks jef! ;)

[edesignuk]

I bought my first Mac a couple of years ago, a PowerMac G4 400Mhz 128Mb (Quickly upgraded to 512Mb!).
I had only really been using PC's since '96 but already windows was getting boring, a Mac was the only way to go!
I have not been dissapointed with it either, OS 9 made a welcome and more stable change to Windows, and OS X seems great so far.
I am now after 2 years upgrading to a new Dual 1Ghz PowerMac and hope that this will serve me as well as my 400Mhz G4.

Rock on Apple!

[menoinjun]

I have always owned pc's but always used macs in school. I got really frustrated using the pcs and decided to splurge on a mac. I was doing graphics work in school, so I got a DP 533 for photoshop and FCP. I have used OS X exclusively since March 24 2001, and only booting classic when absolutely necessary. I am still impressed with the speed of my mac, and enjoy every minute I use it.

-Pete

[mcrain]

Wow, am I the only "non-mac" owner. I'm waiting to buy my first mac. I'm hoping for a speed bump in the tibook, and when that happens, I'm all over it.

Why, why you ask. Couple of reasons. Wintel blue screens of death, constant crashes and reboots, "safe mode" (-> nuff said), Windoze cost, lots of weird holes and slots on the pc laptops, PC's constantly being in need of an upgrade, Gates is the devil, and, oh, apple's have a really nice stable OS that runs on really nice well thought out machines.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by mcrain
Wow, am I the only "non-mac" owner. I'm waiting to buy my first mac. I'm hoping for a speed bump in the tibook, and when that happens, I'm all over it.

Why, why you ask. Couple of reasons. Wintel blue screens of death, constant crashes and reboots, "safe mode" (-> nuff said), Windoze cost, lots of weird holes and slots on the pc laptops, PC's constantly being in need of an upgrade, Gates is the devil, and, oh, apple's have a really nice stable OS that runs on really nice well thought out machines.

so u basically figured out that Windoze sucks then...is what u are saying? ;)

[maclamb]

I bought my first mac while working at Applea s a contractor in 1992. It was a PB100 and I LOVED it - still think it wa sthe best thigh ever.
I was SO impressed withthe design, packaging, thoughtfulness, creativty, that when I got to the offic ethe next day I wrte an email to the group about my expereince.
Everyone came by and said "Congrats - you've been mac'ed"
Stayed that way through my first 601 based machine, then a PowerMac clone, then left apple for many years b/c NT/Win2k were more stable for what I was doing...
Came back last year for OSX (worked at NeXT and was waiting for the port to the mac) - bought an IBook - upgrade to a ti667 and recently bought a DP1G for work to replace the PMG4/400 they gave me.
must admit - OsX was designed to run on a DP.....

[crassusad44]

Originally posted by eyelikeart


thanks jef! ;)

We're all waiting for Apple to break the 1.5 GHz barrier, but eye did it first..... ;)

Now back to topic. I got my first Mac in '94. A Performa 450. I fell in love with Macs the year before, when playing with an LC with MacPain II and system 6.0.8...

Been addicted ever since, and now I'm roaming around with a DP 800! :D

[Biggles]

Ive grown up with Macs because my dad has always been a machead. I rarely even touched a PC before my school switched the macs to PC's (besides every once in a while at friends' houses). Well to me that was just about the worse thing they could have done. I had become so used to Mac OS that it felt like i was being infected with some disease whenever i touched those computers.

[Mr. Anderson]

I bought a Power Computing Power Tower Pro - does that count as a mac?

At the time it was much better than what was available from Apple. Now I'm on my 3rd machine, TiPB and I have a G4 450 Desktop (ordered one the first day they came out).

I look forward to a G5 someday....