Mac Memories
As the Apple Macintosh celebrates it’s 25th Birthday today, it seems many people are reminiscing about their first Apple experience and remembering it affectionately as if it was as important as other “first times” in their lives.
My first Mac was a Mac Mini 1.25GHz Power PC, bought late May 2005. This was my first ever hands-on experience with anything Apple related. I was taking quite a risk buying a machine that I had only ever read about, but read about I had. I remember thinking that I would use the Mac Mini as my secondary machine and that my Toshiba laptop would still be the workhorse. I think that thought probably got erased from my mind on day two.
One of the reasons I went for the Mac Mini and not an iBook or PowerBook was the price. To be fair, if the Mac Mini hadn’t existed and provided the leg-up for us new switchers then there’s a strong possibility that I may not have been writing this post at all. My old Compaq Presario desktop had given up the ghost just months after I bought a 15in Samsung TFT display. All that needed was a machine attached to it along with a keyboard and mouse and I’d be good to go. The Mac Mini was the perfect choice to be that machine.
In April 2007 I bought my second Mac, an Indigo iMac G3 running Mac OS X Tiger, from eBay for around £95. I missed my chance of owning a G3 back in 2000 when I was buying my second PC. Suddenly I saw these bright colourful computers in the store but after using the little puck mouse and looking at the interface I just wasn’t sure and then walked over to pick out my Compaq Presario. So, when I saw the G3’s listed on eBay I just had to have one. The design is still a classic and even when this stops working I’ll never part with it.
Later in 2007 came the Intel iMac 20in Core 2 Duo. My Mac Mini was still going strong but I wanted something that could pack more of a punch. I sold my Mac Mini shortly after for £200. It wasn’t long, though, before another Mac was working it’s way into my affections: a PowerBook G4 Ti running Mac OS X Leopard. I bought that for a little under £300 and for my portable needs it’s absolutely perfect.
I’ve just watched a feature on CNN and an interview with Leander Kahney, author of the wonderful book Cult of Mac amongst others. They discussed the cult-like following Apple has and for me it’s quite hard to explain how I have become such a Mac/Apple enthusiast when, for nearly 7 years, I was simply a PC user and never felt passionate about the machine or operating system I was using. I guess that’s just down to experiencing something that just works and just happens to be inside some very pretty and photogenic casing. Nah, who am I kidding, it’s much more than that. All I can simply do is leave you with these words, from Leander Kahney in the Cult of Mac, which seem to sum it all up for me…
Happy Birthday, Apple Macintosh. Here’s to the next 25 years.
Do you remember your first time?
About the author
I'm a thirty-something Geordie Lass with a passion for Macs. I love playing with new gadgets, Mac software and iPhone/iPad apps.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Sam on January 24, 2009 at 10:40 pm, and is filed under Apple, Design, Hardware. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
Excellent post, I want to write about my first time as a Mac owner in this comment but you just gave me a great idea for another post on my site lol! Sorry! Got to love the iMac G3, I have a Graphite one running Tiger that still works, I may put OS 9 on it to take me back to the past I wish I’d never missed.
about 1 year ago
I regret to say that I haven’t been using Macs as long as you have…
My first Mac was a 2.2GHz SR MacBook Pro, which I’m still using and enjoying. I was given a 1.25GHz eMac about a year ago, which I’ve used occasionally as a secondary machine, but haven’t put to any *real* use.
What Macs would I like to get? A Mac Pro, of course.
Also, I’d love to get my hands on an original 17″ PB G4, an orange iMac G3, a G4 Cube, and an original 5GB iPod. I know someone who has a TAM, and I’m trying to get my hands on it…
Great post, by the way. Happy birthday, Mac!
about 1 year ago
I bought my first mac in 2001, when I was interested in music production and my producer friend advised me to get one. It was a Snow iMac G3 500Mhz (I still remember the specs). I loved that mac, and even upgraded it to a G4 after a few years, which was quite an arduous but rewarding process.
Over the years I’ve also enjoyed (bought and sold) a succession of Indigo Clamshell iBooks and a Powerbook G4. I’m using a mac mini at the moment, though I keep on eyeing up those pretty black MacBooks.
about 1 year ago
Great article, Samantha. I especially love the pictorial quotation from Cult of Mac. I have posted about my nearly two decades with the Mac over on my blog.
about 1 year ago
My first mac was in fact the first family computer in early 90s, it was a Macintosh LC with a 12″ color display running System 6.0.7. Such a great mac, very expandable (to 10Mb of ram and 512kb vram !)
We kept it until System 7.5.5 which was the mac OS we could put in.
Today we (with Missty) own eight (!) Macs and are looking to get more soon
about 1 year ago
Great post Sam. Thanks. Bought my first mac in 1993 – a second hand Classic. Not looked back since!
Blogged a longer account – http://www.ickledotco.co.uk/blog.php
How has Chris inserted his link – is it with html?
about 1 year ago
Hey Tom, I’ll look forward to your post
Thanks for your comment John.! I love looking for the older Macs on eBay to see if there are any good deals on. I just wish I had enough space for a mini Mac museum
Hey PJ! The iMac G3 really were/are great machines. I love the look of those clamshell iBooks aswell and almost bought one a couple of years ago before landing the Ingigo iMac.
Thank you, my dear Christopher. Off to read your blog post now.
Hi Philippe. Wow, *8* Macs and looking for more
Would you and Missty consider adopting me? 
Even though I have 3 Macs I am *still* looking out on eBay for another to add to my collection. These things are like crack. It scares me because I’ve never felt the need to have something as much as I have with Macs. Apple completely own me!
Hey John. Thank you! Off to have a look at your blog-post now – and thanks for the mention in it
Yeah, Chris posted his link using HTML.
about 1 year ago
Re: Mac Museums, old macs etc. I regret that my older macs were all sold in order to buy new ones. However, my G3 iMac is with friends in a good home and I still have the G4 Powerbook that served me well on a road trip through Northern Spain in 2003. I’ve kept the angle-poise iMac but it’s a bit poorly at the mo since a Leopard later update.
about 1 year ago
Ah John, I love those angle-poise iMacs. I see them pop-up on eBay from time to time and it would make a great living room/kitchen machine.
I don’t regret selling my Mac Mini. I sold my widescreen display to fund my iMac so there was nothing to keep it for anymore. Great stable machine that never gave me one bit trouble in over 2 years, but it would have just been sitting in it’s box when it could be bringing joy and pleasure to someone else.
If a newly designed iMac comes out in the next couple of years then I think I would probably jump on board, but will definitely keep this one as I love it.
about 1 year ago
Sam, if you want a Mac museum in your house (don’t we all) you may have already seen this but just incase you haven’t, this guy is the Mac Daddy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/soyburger/209379007/in/set-72157594228629049/
p.s I’m just about to buy another iMac G3, a Graphite 600MHz but in a Purple/Grape case, it’s sexey! iMac G4 is next on the list me thinks, damn Apple.
about 1 year ago
Oh yeah, Tom, I’ve seen that guys Mac Museum and drooled, several times. That would be heaven.
Oh man, a Purple iMac G3? So_jealous.
I’d use my iMac G3 more if it were wireless so I could put it in another room. Not sure what I’d have to do to get it that way, but fiddling with the innards isn’t something I feel comfortable about.
about 1 year ago
What a milestone for the Macintosh. I was a Windows user to being with, but never done anything serious at that time.
We moved to America in ‘96 and there were all Macs in school. My parents wanted me to stay in the Windows/PC path, but eventually bought me a Performa 6116CD bundled with a 14-inch Apple display and StyleWriter 1200 printer. The whole package costed about US$1500 and loaded with System 7.5.
It took me no time to get familiar with the Mac OS. That was the time when Apple was in deep financial trouble and before Steve Jobs’ second coming. I didn’t look back and stick with the Mac.
In the last 13 years, I have/had 10 Macintoshes. *shhh* Actually, the Performa is still in my room.
Thank you, Steve Jobs, ‘The Woz’, and Apple!
about 1 year ago
Awesome post Sam! I really enjoyed reading it
about 1 year ago
Wow, Kenneth, great story. I feel like a newbie compared to some of you
Also *so glad* that I’m not the only one who feels that having more than one Mac is really not over the top, haha. This only adds further to my desire to get my tally even higher!
Hi Sean – and thanks
about 1 year ago
eBay is your friend Samwise, all you need is an iMac G3 AirPort card, yours should be Airport ready, all you do is take the memory door off the back and slot the card in! The main problem is trying to get the card for a decent price, the last time I was looking for one they were going for around £80!
about 1 year ago
Ah right, thanks for that Tom. I’ll keep an eye out for a more reasonably priced card.
about 1 year ago
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WIRELESS-APPLE-AIRPORT-CARD-G3-iBook-G4-Imac-ON-SALE_W0QQitemZ310112521031
Not bad price right there. The main thing that’s dodgy though is they are only 802.11b so you can have trouble connecting to a WPA/WPA2 network.
about 1 year ago
I remember when my parents got us a new mac in 1998 it was so I could practice on computers since i was only like 6 years old, but was fascinated by technology it was a 233Mhz iMac G3. Then my parents got rid of the iMac G3 in 2001, and bought an UGLY windows ME PC, I still used macs at school & on xmas 2003 my parents bought me an eMac G4, I kept that for 3 years and in March ‘06 i got my first intel mac, the Mac mini. I then bought a load of new software for xmas ‘06, and in 2007 I got a new monitor for the mini. Xmas 2007, I got a white Macbook, and in Jan 0′8 I got two new Mac minis & for my b-day in March I got a Graphite PowerMac G4.
about 1 year ago
Hi Ryan, nice story. It’s good to read people’s Mac timeline. Thanks for sharing.
about 1 year ago
Hi Sam
The first Mac I used was a IIsi in about 1991-2. It had a massive 40mb hard drive and 1mb of ram. What a beast. It ran system 7.0, which came on about 7 floppy disks! I ran Aldus Pagemaker 4 and freehand. No version number just Freehand. I then moved on to an LC (pizza box) and from there Quadras. Happy days. I now have a 17″ MacBook Pro (old version). Oh and an iPhone, which has more ram and HD space than the IIsi!! I think we have an original mac somewhere at work!! I’ll dig it out and post a pic.
about 1 year ago
Hey Dean! Wow, that first Mac sounds like a monster
I’d love to see your pics! Thanks for sharing!