How were you introduced to the Mac?

[Yoda3984]

I used Macs off and on through elementary school, but it wasn't until junior high that I really got into using Macs. I was on our yearbook staff and all we had were Macs. I even remember when we unboxed one of the original G3 Bondi blue iMacs right after they came out.

Then there was a dry spell until college, when I bought one of those G3 iMacs again for nostalgia's sake. Sold that, bought a PowerBook G4 1 ghz. Sold that to my sister for college, and she still loves it. Got an iPhone, and then really wanted a Mac again. Bought a late 07 White MacBook, then sold that and bought my current Aluminum MacBook.

I have a problem holding onto laptops. . .

 

[Gaelic2]

I started with the Apple ll, upgraded to the ll E and to the ll G and then to the Mac Classic all the way to the iMac 20" this year. The Mac SE was a great one. So was the little Apple ll at the time with 48 K memory. My experience has been great with Apple through all the ups and downs. I am no guru with computers but they have made my life easier over the years. I thoroughly enjoy the youthful exuberance of this forum and all the freely given help they pass on. Thanks to all of you for your time and help.

 

[Hurricane310]

My first ever apple product was the U2 Limited Edition 20GB iPod.

This didnt really spark my interest in apple products though and it was until the iPhone 3G that i purchased my second item from them. I completely fell in love with my iPhone and started researching online for my next apple product almost obsessively i must say.

Needless to say i now also own an aluminum unibody macbook and within the next year am probably buying a cinema display and quite possibly an Apple TV.

 

[cmcbridejr]

My first Mac was from the mid 80s...

A friend of my mom had a son that was about to enter college at Georgia Tech. The son had purchased a new computer for school, and so, my mom purchased his old Mac from him.

My mom gave me the Mac as a present. I remember it had so much software - over two crates of floppy disks. I also remember typing in command lines to get programs to run. I think it had a black/green screen.

My dad recently told me that they still have it in a box somewhere in their basement. It probably still works.

Does anyone possibly know this type of Mac

I guess I should go take a look and set it up to see if it still works.

 

[chadamorrill]

Job

Long story, much, much shorter, I developed an interest in Windows PCs in high school, bought my first when I went off to college, and built my first over my first summer break. I went back to school, only to figure out that I wanted a change of scenery after fall semester. The new college had no funding for scholarships, so my parents suggested I get a job for the spring/summer and then start up at the new college in the fall.

I hated looking for a job (unmotivated college student, go figure) so my mom drove me around to a bunch of places. We stopped at a 'Blimpie' sandwich shop, which was right down the strip from an Apple reseller. Mom made me go in because there was a "now hiring" sign in the window. I told her I didn't WANT to go in because they were "a MAC store, and MAC's are STUPID!" Needless to say, I went in, got an interview, got the job, fell in love with Mac's within the first couple days of working there (OS 9, If I remember right), ate up the beta of OS X, and purchased my first iBook in 2001 (the white, dual USB model).

Since then, I've owned/worked with that iBook, a 15" Powerbook (alu), a PowerPC MacMini, a CoreDuo MacMini, my new Alu MBP, 4 iPod's, 1 iPhone, an AppleTV, and 3 different Airport base stations.

I've switched countless people, including my sister's, my father-in-law, my boss, and our Marketing department at work It's so nice to not have to answer their IT related calls anymore. Fun stuff!

 

[cmcbridejr]

I grew up using Macs, and so I've always been familiar with Apple. However, I did go over to the dark side for a couple years (I always had a Mac, but I used my PC more during that time). However, once I got Panther and a dual processor PowerMac, I was sold... and things have only improved since then. I've never looked back.

Yeah, I went to the dark side for a while when the Gateway 2000 came out.

Does anyone remember the buying process for those computers?

First you would go into a "boutique" Gateway shop to look at the Gateway 2000 computer. However, you could not leave the store with a computer in hand. Instead, you would have to order it for delivery. So, the Gateway 2000 would arrive a week later on your doorstop in a huge spotted cow box.

After the Gateway 2000, I did not come back to Macs until the PowerBook G4 came out. I learned Final Cut on that machine and have not looked back since.

 

[Batt]

Personally, I first used Macs in elementary school...between 1996 and 1998. I think they were mostly Macintosh Classics, and the teacher used a PowerMac G3. However, I completely forgot about them until years later after I bought an iPod.

Jeez, talk about feeling old. I've got leftovers in the refrigerator older than you . . .
BTW - started using Macs about 17 or 18 years ago, at work.

 

[niemo810]

My first experience with a Mac was I believe in first grade. In the library we had four (I think) LC 575's, although they might have been Performas... I don't really know anything about Mac models manufactured before I actually bought my own. Anyway, we had those 575's and they were a blast to use from what I can remember. We had those all through primary school, then for some reason when I went to middle school in 4th grade, the computers were all running Windows 95. That's not important, though, because I had already forgotten about macs by second grade when my dad bought an AST machine running '95.

It wasn't until my first semester in college I was re-introduced to macs. I was in a computer lab, and all of the PC's were taken. I had to go to the Mac corner and give it a shot. I really really loved OS X so I started using it more and more and it got to the point that I preferred OS X over Windows XP. I did that whole thing where I tried to get windows XP to look like a Mac, but it never really compared.

I eventually bought my first Mac over summer break before my sophomore year. Now I'm getting ready for Winter break in my junior year, still happy with my Mac.

There was a point when I considered going back to the PC world, because the macbook I got originally was a lemon, and the hard drive crashed four times. But they replaced it, gave me applecare, and everything has been running good for nearly a year now.

 

[Vulcan]

Hmm...

A friend was going to grab an iBook down at the Apple Store we just got. I looked at the Aluminum PowerBook's and thought, dang, those things are nice looking! Sales person came over while I fiddled around with the OS and picked just about everything about up quickly and was amazed. I walked out with one that day. My MacBook from August was only purchased as the I needed a machine that was able to run CS3/4 at home.

 

[Airforcekid]

I live in an anti apple area I get made fun of everytime someone finds out I have an iPhone. I did research and found out macs are better and I'm glad I did. I can't wait to move!

 

[Primejimbo]

Most of my friends are Mac users and I hear all the time how good they are. My 1 friend complains about everything, but I never hear him complain about his Macs, so I figured they must be good then lol.

 

[iToaster]

Well, my story is simple. I was on a vacation in Europe many years ago and my roommate (also the only other male on the trip out of 23 of us ) and he brought his laptop with him. We made an insane little video with it and stuck it on YouTube (too bad I can't find it right now). I was captivated with this computer and wanting to buy one for myself, asked him what it was. An iBook G4 was it... so I watched Apples website, read as much as I can, and basically learned everything I could about computers. Following the fast paced computer learning excursion I bought a MacBook and things have only gotten better since then.

 

[weekend warrior]

I started using macs way back in elementary school (lates 80's), only really using it to play that Louisiana purchase game (remember that?). Computers were pretty crud back then. Then in middle school all the computers were macs, and i remember them being really crappy. I avoided macs all through high school until my friend got hold of an ibookG3. I've wanted one since, but still haven't bought. looking at the MBP.

 

[Solemony]

I think I was 13 when I got my first imac. It was introduced by mom's friend's son *who's a computer genius I'd say*. Before that I was using a PC desktop and it totally crashed on me...first time it got a virus and so was the second time..so finally after a year or so w/o computer to do work. My parents decided to buy a new one since my work in school becomes quite heavy...so he introduced me to a mac computer and my parents agree to it..It was the imac g5 and it still works and still love it and STILL LOVE APPLE!!!!!!!


Been using apple for just a little over 3 years..

 

[synth3tik]

My old man came back from an electronics auction with an Apple IIe he bought, it was previously used for 911 operator training for a short time.

A few years later he brought an acoustic modem home and I had my first taste of the "internet" ah la Compuserve.

 

[SlasherDuff]

I started using Apple IIe when they were still used in the schools, but this was maybe about 20 years ago. (remember the Oregon Trail?) By the time I was in seventh grade they upgraded to the original Mini Mac. I loved that machine so much. I especially loved the font choices, and the sound effects on it. Ever since then I have been using PC's off and on, until last year. I got sick of having to fix infected PC's I switched to Macintosh. I have never looked back.

 

[.Andy]

I wrote my honours thesis on a brand spanking new graphite G4 tower. I did so because the lab with the dells in it was really busy. I fell in love immediately .

 

[calsci]

i first had encounters with a mac in grade school. young student me i ahd those all in one "new" design. they totally sucked so i thought it was a pc. moving on 8th grade my teacher had a macbook and i was like what is that" son that is an apple macbook." and it just went from there. i am now a proud owner of a late 08 macbook pro and an imac.

 

[descartes]

ipod got me hooked.

 

[txhockey9404]

I went to a summer camp where I was editing video, and I was using an eMac. The thing was too slow to render the video, but I was amazed at how well the 3-4 year old machine could handle eight hours of DV editing. A year later, I needed a new computer, and I took my dad to the Apple store. We walked out with 2 new 17inch white iMacs. He would not let me open them. The next week we went on a cruise, and when we came back, there was the new aluminum iMac. I told my dad, who was unhappy, and we went back and exchanged for the last two iMacs. That night, I happily unpacked both mine and my brothers'. His is still around and working perfectly with the Tiger OS. Mine had hardware problems and was replaced by Apple in March. The new one has Leopard, and is the exact same model. I could not be happier right now (aside from my need to upgrade my RAM).

 

[Schtumple]

I remember going to buy my first PC and my dad showed me the iMacs (the brightly coloured G3 600mhz one), I remember him saying these are the apple computers, they're a little bit more expensive, but they're alot faster.

Sadly, I went down the PC route, and enjoyed 5 years of 98 and XP nightmares, before trying out OSX86 then finally making the plunge with a 2ghz C2D iMac.

College was also a factor as we used macs for video production, it astounded me that a 800mhz G4 iMac was faster than my 2ghz AMD Athlon PC

I'm now using a 2.5ghz MBP for uni, as the iMac is too much of a hindrance to bring with me, portability is a godsend here.

 

[Aea]

I bought a MacBook Pro since basically I had all the software I needed and the only thing missing was games and that could be replaced by Bootcamp. Also, it was the best bang for the buck machine out there at the time, especially considering the Free iPod and the College Student Discount. OSX grew on my very quickly, fell in love. Eventually got tired of rebooting into windows and stopped playing games for the most part.

 

[phillymacuser]

i was introduced to macs when i entered high school which was fifteen years ago! wow! cant believe it has been that long. i was in a communications program and we used performa's to create audio/video projects for class. i was just amazed by what i was able to create using those machines. i cant imagine if i never would have been involved in that program that exposed me to the world of macs! have never bought any other computer. i have used a variety of other brands of computers because of different jobs i have had. but i have never bought any other than a apple!

 

[QCassidy352]

my family always had them. our first one was an LC III.

 

[ikermalli]

First, someone on my basketball team showed me their iPod Video, U2 version, then at another tournament showed me his mini he got from trading with his dad, then I got a mini, then I got a nano 2g, then a nano 3g, then it broke, then I got an iPhone 3G, then I got my Mac yesterday