Although I spent time with the Apple II, my first real Apple product was a Mac 512 that wasn’t actually mine. I had it assigned to me as part of my participation in student government at my university and I continued in that position for three years largely so I could use that beautiful Mac.
It sounds silly … but what really hooked me on the original Mac was Susan Kare’s amazing iconography. Remember the original control panel. The tortoise and the hare were brilliant.
Anyway, what was your first Mac, how did you come by it, and what did you like best about it?
I have a fun story. I used Windows machines until 2001. I was working as a freelance visual effects artist and web developer when my Dell laptop was putting along doing a lot of nothing. I had 2GB of RAM in my machine, because I usually used client systems which were definitely more suited for the RAM hog programs used for motion graphics and animation. That’s when I was gifted a maxed out PowerBook G4 by my friend, as well as a client at the time, Director/Writer Keenen Ivory Wayans. I’ve been hooked since!
My first Mac was a MacBook Air from 2009 - the one with the rounded edges and the drop down flap for the ports. I had been through a series of Windows machines, and after having my Toshiba slow down to the point where I would turn it on, go shower, eat breakfast, dry my hair, and it might be ready to do work during my first semester at university, I decided to buy a Mac.
I’m the tech support for my family, but my dad was the one in charge of computer purchases so I ran my ideas and notes by him and we agreed: MacBook Air. Thin, light, had this fancy magnetic charger, and should be the best there was. I wanted the one with the SSD, and after the person in the Apple store tried to talk me into buying a white MacBook (good arguments!), my dad being impressed by the sales person trying to sell us a lower priced model, we walked out with the MacBook Air and a time capsule for wireless backup.
That machine lasted me for 5 years and I only upgraded because I wanted a retina screen device (I had an iPad 3 and loved it).
It was a brilliant first Mac to have (not without compromises, but thankfully we’d already transferred all of our CDs to iTunes), and I’m glad it was mine.
The first mac I used was in Elementary School at the school library. I loved it. There were 4 Mac models, along with several Windows computers. I exclusively used the mac models because most students were familiar with WIndows at this point and I liked the older graphics. They had 2 Macintosh Classic IIs and ` Macintosh Color Classics. When I went into MIddle School they had fewer macs but invested in a couple iMacs and I enjoyed those a lot as those were brand new at the time. I had a Windows 95/98 computer at home and didn’t buy get my own mac to own until the old plastic Macbook black model. Mac OSX Tigers was a game Tiger and the switch to Intel made a huge difference. I loved boot camp and the automated program along with the ability to use early versions of parallels during my first year of University. I used this for about 5 years until it broke, then I upgraded to a chrome book for a couple years for financial reasons plus an iPad, then finally got a MacBook Pro 13 inch (2013 generation) and used that for about 3 years and now I use a 2018 MacBook Pro 15 inch.
My dad was a lifer with IBM. I grew up in a household that was Apple II, then IBM-PC all the way after (and OS2, of course, when that was a thing).
I used many Macs at school and jobs but always had some variety of PC until after great frustration with failed attempts to install/use Windows 95 when it first came out, I bought a PowerMac 7200/90…and have been an all-Mac household since.
I was late to the macbook party. Truth be told. I was vehemently an anti-mac person.
I was all about the souped up XPS laptops from Dell. Then I got married, my wife is all macbook. Still continued in my dark ways. Then in 2014, her Macbook Pro died (Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo, 2007), we purchased her a new one. I got bored one day and took her old Macbook Pro apart, since I had never seen the inside of mac.
With a handy guide from iFixit I went to work on upgrading the RAM, the HD, fixing the optical drive. I put my Windows to the side, installed Dropbox, Google Drive, installed all the apps that I would need and gave it a test run for 3 months before I was sold. I could do everything on this old Macbook Pro (which had taken an 8 year beating) just as fast as my “latest and greatest” Windows machine.
My wife was watching me during this period and surprised me on my birthday with my current Macbook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014. Since then, it has been hooked up an external monitor, with a bunch of stuff.
Caveat, I already had an iPhone (back then it was the iPhone 5) and an iPad (back then it was the iPad 2) before but was not using it to their full extent. I was still under the impression that they were just consumption devices and didn’t really add to my workflows. I was so wrong!!!
Full Circle, I converted almost all my family members and friends to Macbooks, since I am the IT guy for the family. Cancelled all our Dell accounts and switched everything over.
I resisted Macs at first. I had used Trash-80s, (loved those 8-inch floppies!) and Apple IIs in a computer cluster in my department, but the Apple II mostly for playing games during down time. A few years later I was in an MS program when the Mac came out but I had a Zenith PC clone and lobbied for our lab to go PC when we decided to computerize. I lost that argument (circa 1985) and a new Mac arrived in the lab, which I never used. I finished up my MS research and took a position in Bermuda - without having written my thesis. It turns out the only computer available to me in the lab in Bermuda was a Mac – I forget which model, but it had to be one of the first ones, probably a Mac Plus.
By the time I was finished writing my thesis I was hooked. I returned to the lab I did my MS in for my PhD and the Zenith became very useful – for controlling some equipment that required Windows (Version 1.0!!). The Zenith became dedicated to that purpose and I began using the Macs in the lab for everything else.
The first Mac I bought for myself was a Mac Classic II in 1992.
So, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the Mac, but once I accepted it, I flipped and haven’t gone back, other than when required to by an employer.
I had an Apple IIe growing up. I had to beg long and hard for that, and set up a family savings fund. My parents finally saw the benefit and just went out and bought it.
My first Mac, though, wasn’t until the Air (2nd generation?) in about 2010. Within a week I knew I wouldn’t be using my Windows machines any longer. Shortly after that, I unhooked one of my monitors at the office, and brought the MacBook to work every day. I only used the Windows rig for putting stuff into our case management system, which was PC-only. In the past couple of years, I’ve led the way in switching my firm to platform-agnostic software, and a month ago I finally got rid of the Windows computer completely, which had been sitting in a corner collecting dust.
2006 MacBook Pro 17 Inch. TBH I got it fully spec out because for some reason I thought Mac’s were slow and I thought I was taking a risk with this machine. Little did I know this thing was a powerhouse and OSX was light years ahead of Windows XP. Simple things like Spotlight and the intro video blew me away and had me hooked ever since.
1995 PowerMac 6100/60 AV. I think it was around $2000? just for the unit with no monitor. Came with 8 MB of RAM and I later upgraded it to 24 MB. Ran great under System 7, pretty good with OS 8 and pretty sluggish with OS 9.
Proud to say I never switched from Windows. Started on Macs. Although I have needed to use Windows one time at a job. Confirmed my suspicions.
My first Mac was a Iici at work and the first Mac that I owned was a IIsi. Straight from MSDOS to the Mac. My 30th Mac anniversary will just be around the time of the Olympics in Tokyo.
iMac in 2007. I was a happy Windows XP user but I needed a replacement machine. Nobody liked Vista and I figured if I was going to have to learn a new OS anyway, I might as well go to one that people liked using.
If my MacBook Air has a premature death, I may find myself in the same situation, as none of the current Mac laptop line-up looks appealing. But hopefully I can get a couple of more years out of this machine – which is, by the way, fantastic. Best laptop I ever owned. I feel about it the way some people feel about their 2015 MBP.
After using windows for all of the 90s, I decided to get a red iMac in 2000. It was a fun machine but if it weren’t for the iPod, I may have switched back for practicality (PCs at work). Needless to say I have never looked back and amazed at how much you can do on a Mac.
Since that Mac, I’ve owned six macs including my spouse’s macs. I am finally being provided one at work for the first time and we will see how it goes…
Dad brought home an SE30 for word processing his business. Then he bought a laser printer! I may have cut my teeth Sim Ant and Word Munchers, but I started to learn HyperCard shortly after and wondered about what else could be done on the machine…
My first Mac was a Macintosh SE with a whopping 1MB of RAM and a 20MB hard drive. I purchase it in 1988, and I have to say it was truly a glorious time. While I continued to run my business on a Leading Edge Model D, the Mac was primarily intended for my music production. The first time I witnessed my MIDI keyboard being controlled by the Mac was like black magic.
Original edition 128K Mac! Purchased in college. Most memorable moment was extending memory to 512K so that the startup song for Airborne! would play longer.
Surprised I didn’t burn up the logic board given the hours of Dark Castle that machine endured!
Amazingly, I still have it and it still boots… at least the last time I took it out of the box. Seems every couple of years I get the itch to unbox it and turn it on. Fingers crossed each time. I think it is time to do it again…
I started in an Apple ][+ a long time ago and remember when a few friends got the Mac 128ks - i loved spending time making “folder mazes” to find files. i realize the irony of that now as I try to avoid it.
my own personal first mac was one of the short lived Mac 2si’s when i got to college and lived through the huge transition from MacOS 6 to OS 7… but due to the extreme lack of software relevant to my degree (Computet Engineering) I swore off Macs in 93 or 94 defecting to the 486 DX33 in a cow box.
I returned back to the world of Macs briefly during the colorful iMac days (i got an orange one) for a few small work projects but didn’t really care for it still - or OS9. but i did kinda like some of the cheese grater macs at work when bullding usb gadgets for os9 then on to os x but i remained unconvinced to switch back
I returned fully to a macbook pro in 2012 when the lighting connector was introduced and I had a project to create a lighting gadget dev kit for SiLabs - and began to see how far they had come in software and hardware.
I have stayed on a mbpro since using it to completely manage and build full blown custom Android ports and apps for custom hardware platforms including an automotive infotainment in dash system. all on the macbook pro and vmware.
the laptops are beasts. and i’ve put them through hell and they live up to the abuse and pull throigh like no other. (I even accidentally drove over my mbp with my truck and it survived! nothing else in my bag did).
This month i just started working at Apple so it feels like i’ve come full circle… a “if you can’t beat them or drive over them then join em!”
oh yeah and this podcast has cost me more than any other .
My first Mac was an LC II, proud member of the category known as the “pizza box” Macs.
It was 1992 and I was attending photography school in California and my school wasn’t part of Apple’s Educational program so I couldn’t afford a Mac. One of my roommates offered to buy it for me in exchange for the currency of college…beer. She bought it from the UCSB student store and I was there that day with her to help “carry it to the car”. I felt like some sort of criminal but it was so worth it!
I first used the Mac Color because we were required to for my college English classes. Papers had to be turned in on disk (3 1/2 inch floppy), done in Microsoft Word on the Macs in the English labs. It was so much cooler than the PC my mom had at home running windows 3.1 …
First purchased Mac was also a pizza box, the Performa 360. A floor model from Montgomery Wards. I used that one until my school (by this time I’m teaching) bought the Performa 5260/100s all in one machines. I loved those. When my school district went PC, I bought a 17” MacBook Pro. I’m on my second one. It’s nearly 10 years old and it’s my daily use machine. (Sadly, Mohave will leave it behind.)
While my life with Apple began on a LISA at work, my first Mac was a Macintosh IIsi augmented with a Powerbook 100 followed by a Powerbook 180c, Newton, Powerbook G4 667 Titanium. Since that Titanium it has been a constant progression of Mac laptops complemented by a Power Mac G5 which morphed into a Mac Pro. For the past four years I’ve been holding off on Mac purchases while I’ve been waiting/hoping for new improved Mac Pro and MacBook Pro offerings.
I went to work on upgrading the RAM, the HD, fixing the optical drive. I put my Windows to the side, installed Dropbox, Google Drive, installed all the apps that I would need and gave it a test run for 3 months before I was sold. I could do everything on this old Macbook Pro (which had taken an 8 year beating) just as fast as my “latest and greatest” Windows machine.
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While my life with Apple began on a LISA at work, my first Mac was a Macintosh IIsi augmented with a Powerbook 100 followed by a Powerbook 180c, Newton, Powerbook G4 667 Titanium. Since that Titanium it has been a constant progression of Mac laptops complemented by a Power Mac G5 which morphed into a Mac Pro. For the past four years I’ve been holding off on Mac purchases while I’ve been waiting/hoping for new improved Mac Pro and MacBook Pro offerings.