Very first Mac was a used MacBook I bought on Amazon or Ebay for like $200. It was the white case with the light up Apple logo, I don't recall what year or anything. I bought it to try out Mac and see if I liked it. I have been using Macs ever since.
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What was your first Mac?
- Thread starter The Cockney Rebel
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A Mac SE, followed a couple of years later by a LC. God, I feel old. It’s crazy that, 38 years ago, a Mac was more expensive than a Mac Studio Max is now, and that’s dollar for dollar, without allowing for inflation.
I mentioned earlier on this thread, that I had a moment where I had to choose between a decent early-gen PowerPC Mac setup (far from my first Mac) and a (second hand) car.
Those were the prices we we taking about back then.
That’s insane but I totally remember those choices. As a young man, there were two things I remember going hungry for, a Mac, and vinyl.
Isn't this just a reminder that Apple's pricing has always been very greedy?
With most manufacturers there's usually a straight correlation between BOM and the retail price. With Apple, that's cast to the wind. Apple charges what they can get away with, and they're masters of the game. There are people at Apple who monitor market and world economic conditions, and all this feeds into pricing. This is why Apple's planned budget MacBook is so fascinating. Somebody at Apple has figured that for maybe the next decade, fewer people are going to be willing to pay $999 for what other manufacturers might charge at half or two thirds that price. I think that's very, very interersting -- and not in a happy way.
No, these prices were across the board.
Technology has gotten far cheaper, irrespective of the brand.
You sure? I recall budget PCs back when Apple was charging the price of a used car for a PowerPC Mac. In fact, I was a computing journalist at the time, reviewing these budget computers! Everybody laughed at the people who paid 2x or 3x the price for equivalent functionality for a Mac.
2002 G4 15” iMac, “The Lamp,” in all of its beautiful glory!🤩 The days when Apple included everything in the box, including the Harmon Kardon speakers. I don’t recall if I had to buy the subwoofer separately, but I got one. I still have all of it, it’s in MOMA, plus it was really the last time that Apple designed something uniquely wonderful and purposeful, IMHO, anyway.
That is my favorite design Apple has ever made. I have wanted one for years and finally bought a 15" this year. Unfortunately the GPU kicked the bucket, though, not much longer after I got it. I may put a raspberry pi inside to make it a nostalgic gaming machine.
I was aware of Macintosh computers for a long time, but I didn't buy a Mac until 2006. I wanted a laptop to complement my desktop, so I got a white MacBook. Apple had started its transition to Intel by that time. I loved it. It was running 10.4.
Although the new versions of MacOS have more features, there's a certain charm and fun that has been lost in the recent versions of MacOS. I'm not sure what it is. I will always have fond memories of that MacBook.
Although the new versions of MacOS have more features, there's a certain charm and fun that has been lost in the recent versions of MacOS. I'm not sure what it is. I will always have fond memories of that MacBook.
My first Mac was a 2006 Mac mini with the Intel Core Solo, slow hard drive, and 512MB of RAM.
My wife's sister worked for Apple in the Bay Area in the early '80s. I got an employee deal on a Macintosh IIx, and it was still a bunch of coins back then. As I remember, it had the optional 4 KB of memory and came with one of the first Apple scanners.
I made the mistake of blowing up a scanned old family picture from the 1800s, and magnifying it on the screen could see the buttons they sewn on with one thread for cosmetic effect before they took the photo. I showed it to my dad, and he took one look at the magnification and he said, "Son, I have to leave now." I was shocked; it must have scared him pretty bad.
I've had many Macs since, mostly Mac Pro Desktops and a few laptops. I built most of the Mac Pros with extra drives and added memory. It's been a great ride, but my hands are getting old and slow, and most of my friends are gone, and I don't have much competition anymore.
While in the Air Force, I helped maintain a flight simulator using analog electronic simulators. The electronic racks occupied a 6,000 SF building. Now you could do the same job with a Mac Mini. LOL
I made the mistake of blowing up a scanned old family picture from the 1800s, and magnifying it on the screen could see the buttons they sewn on with one thread for cosmetic effect before they took the photo. I showed it to my dad, and he took one look at the magnification and he said, "Son, I have to leave now." I was shocked; it must have scared him pretty bad.
I've had many Macs since, mostly Mac Pro Desktops and a few laptops. I built most of the Mac Pros with extra drives and added memory. It's been a great ride, but my hands are getting old and slow, and most of my friends are gone, and I don't have much competition anymore.
While in the Air Force, I helped maintain a flight simulator using analog electronic simulators. The electronic racks occupied a 6,000 SF building. Now you could do the same job with a Mac Mini. LOL
I don't remember the early PowerPC era.
However, I do vividly remember the late 80s, when I was considering getting my first computer. I was in high school at the time, and one of my teachers strongly urged that I consider an IBM PC compatible, saying that it would be good enough, but it'd be s lot cheaper.
As it turned out, I ended up with a Macintosh. I was happy with that Macintosh. However, looking back, I see the argument that I could have probably gotten by with an IBM PC compatible.
Of course, the Mac was more fun, and there were some things I did do with that computer that I probably couldn't have done (or done as easily) with an IBM PC compatible.
Eight years later, I saw that teacher again, and at that time he had a new-ish PowrrBook on his desk. He also had conveniently forgotten about his anti-Mac position of the 1980s. (Although when I saw him for the last time before he retired, he had shifted to Windows, since the school had gone with Windows.)
I had one of these only mine was a CoreDuo. It was just as slow. Intel machines really needed more than 512MB of memory to be usable. Didn't stop me from trying though.
I've got one that someone put 2GB in, it was still pretty unusable. I do have a Core Duo laptop with 3GB in it, and it's much better, probably because that extra core really helps a ton.
I have a PowerBook 180 with a greyscale screen that still boots.
