How were you introduced to the Mac?

[Mjmar]

The iPod introduced me to Apple, and when I went on their website the "do everything" MacBook slogan appeared on the front page along with a picture of the MacBook. I remember telling myself, "That is the most perfect laptop I've ever seen".

 

[321estrellas]

For iPod, I used to be the type that wouldn't get something a lot of people had. So when I wanted an MP3 player, I got a Creative Zen Micro. Broke on me after a year (I think) just after the warranty expired. Later got an iPod Photo and it was great (but it broke on me too).

For Macs (and having an iPod had nothing to do with it), I do a lot of video work and I wanted to learn Final Cut. No regrets EVER! My first was a 20" 2.0ghz Intel Core Duo iMac. Even if I still used Windows on it, it was faster than any PC Windows machine I had ever used, and ran games smooth as silk.

For iPhone...well after owning a Mac and iPod, it was just natural that I had to get an iPhone too 😉

 

[Winni]

I'd have to check "None of the above" if that option were available. Or maybe "Curiosity killed the cat". 😀

I was 14 years old when the original Mac was introduced in 1984, and it was a dream machine for me at the time. However, one that was as unaffordable as a Lamborghini Countach for me.

Then, in the 90s, I had a Macintosh LC with a 12" color screen running System 6 for a while. It was not my computer, but I could borrow it for a couple of weeks. It was a beautiful little machine, but still beyond my budget.

Later, when I finally had sufficient income to afford a Mac, they simply were not an option for me anymore. My entire job life in the IT business evolves around PCs.

Nevertheless, when the Mac Mini was introduced, I bought one out of a mix of being bored with PCs, curiosity and the lust for something different. After that I got hooked for a long while and 'migrated' my entire private 'zoo' to Apple hardware - except for my Microsoft keyboard and mouse and my Xbox.

However, my initial excitement has pretty much worn off by now. At the end of the day, there are much more similarities between the two worlds Mac and PC - or rather OS X and Windows, because a Mac is a PC - than there are differences. You could also say that I became rather platform agnostic and master both worlds. As a user, I prefer the OS X platform. As an IT guy and programmer, I prefer the Windows world.

 

[mg5904]

Saw the Mac in the days of A flock of Seagulls, Bow Wow Wow, and the Human League, and thought it was brilliant. My brother took advantage of his academic discount and brought home the 512. 512K! Holy cow, we were the envy of the neighborhood. Great machine that got a lot of use through his college years and mine and then my Mom used it when she went back to school. I wish I still had that machine.

I stuck with Mac for a while, picking up one of their first laptops for my next round with academia. That machine provided my first Web experience back in the mid nineties. I went astray soon after for work and home, and more school, but I've come full circle. Looking to purchase a MacBook within the next couple of weeks. I can't wait.

 

[munkery]

My HP desktop had the strange habit of screwing up the installation of windows updates. Specifically, DLL files related to the function of adobe acrobat would not be placed in the right folder causing Adobe reader not to work. It would take quite some time for instructions for what dll file was misplaced and where it should be located to show up on the net so I could fix it. Given that I was a student a needed adobe to read and print journal articles for writing research papers, this was a big hassle which required me to use a computer at the university despite having a computer at home.

That desktop now runs Ubuntu Linux and has never had a hiccup since. I prefer Macs, but I avoid anything not Unix-based like the plague.

 

[dannyboxer]

I never even knew that Apple made computers until about 3 years ago when I bought my first iPod. I went onto Apple.com and then I saw that they made computers. Now about 3 years later I have my first ever Mac.

 

[jzuena]

My dad used to work at an architect bureau and they used apples. So as a kid we had a apple III at home. I remember a game where you had to dig holes and enamies fall in to it. Then you had to hurry and fill the hole again. (It was not Dig Dug.) And some pinball game.

Apple Panic! and the pinball game was probably Night Mission.

My first computer was a Franklin Ace (Apple ][+ compatible) which was replaced by an Enhanced Apple //e then nothing Apple until I inherited my dad's Macintosh LC III (running either OS 6 or System 7), which I promptly sold. The group I am working in uses Macs so when I needed a new desktop right as the Intel transition started I went with a Core Duo Mini (since upgraded with a C2D CPU) to go with the MBP I use at work.

 

[Eric S.]

I got my first Macintosh 128K in college in 1984 just after they came out (and shortly thereafter I came out.. what a coincidence!) and have been using Macs at home ever since... so, doing the math that's... over 24 years. 😱

So, who feels old?

Me. 😉 In 1984 I was working for a company that produced x86 and 68K Unix systems. One day a co-worker brought in the original 128K Mac. It was the first time any one of us had ever seen a desktop paradigm (with a trashcan on the screen!), a graphical filesystem, a 3.5" floppy, or a mouse. I wasn't exactly sold on it at first but a couple of years later bought my first personal system, the Mac Plus, when the SCSI interface offered the use of a whopping 5 or 10 MB external hard drive!

 

[gkarris]

There was a small cool Apple computer store around the corner where I lived (back in the day when there were small cool computer stores). They had just gotten the Mac 128K in. Tried it out a few minutes.

Then, a friend of ours brought one over during Winter break from college as he had just got one for Christmas.

Played Infogram's "Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy" on it... 😀

Fun times... 😉

 

[romanaz]

I started out with, if I recall correctly, a Performa 5200 or 5500. The pictures I have found online show it to be one or the other, from what I remember. I was in 4th grade and was learning to type. Last time I was at that grade school, they still had a few of them running and still in use. All through grade school and high school, we had nothing but macs. Sure, we had Windows at home, but macs were at school. Looking back, and looking at dates and such, I must have started on System 7, and later on Mac OS 8 and some of 9 just before High school. I remember when Mac OS 10.0 came out, how amazing it was compared to OS9.

Then for a while, I was using Windows 98 and 2000 at home and school, as we got new Compaqs at the library, and then returning to 10.3 for my programming class. After that, and experiencing FCP on an eMac, I decided that was what I wanted to do in life (edit video) and then went on to community college with iMacs and an old G3 running next to a GrassValley switcher.

Finally, at my internship, I was introduced to the G5 and to a macbook pro, right when the Mac Pro came out, and we then took a trip to the local apple store and purchased a 6grand Mac Pro for the business. That summer I ended up getting a 17inch macbook pro and FCS.

Amazing how computers have changed in only 15 years, eh?