My First Mac

Ten Years, Two PowerBook Duos

Spencer Garrett - 2003.01.13

My Mac story begins in 1992 when I was a Lieutenant in the Navy. I had used Macs before at the Naval Academy. At that point, personal computing was so new that I lost a paper because I did not know how to save it to the floppy drive (my professor was so unimpressed with my tale of woe that I can quote him to this day: "He who lives by technology, dies by technology" Dr. Michael T. Isenberg, USNA, circa 1988).

While on active duty, I had also used a few PC clones with MS-DOS and maybe Windows 3.1 on them. In those days, desktop computers were big, bulky, and expensive, so they were typically found only in the central offices - there was nothing "personal" about them.

After serving on two battleships, I was assigned to staff duty on an Amphibious Squadron staff. My Commodore was an outstanding officer who truly thought outside the box, and he and two of his department heads bought Macintoshes for their offices. My roommate also bought one for our stateroom - a used $3,000 Macintosh Portable that may have been a Macintosh, but at 16 lbs. it was not very portable. But it was smaller than a desktop, which was important in a room that doubled as an office, was shared by two people, and was smaller than a prison cell (literally!). A quick PhoneNet network was put together, and we were in business.

This was my first real introduction to the Mac OS and the very important program called ClarisWorks. It was amazing how much could be done with such a small program. I used the Navy's Zenith 486 laptop on my road trips, but it seemed glitchy and slow compared to the Mac Portable. And PC networks were a joke - if they communicated at all, it was just to swap viruses!

When I went to shore duty the following year, I knew that I could not allow the Personal Computing Revolution to pass me by, and I knew that I wanted a Mac. That was all I knew. At CompUSA I had a choice of an LC III, IIvx, or a Power Mac 6100. I made the ill-fated choice of the IIvx, a Low End Mac Road Apple that I used for less than a year.

Then I found a used PowerBook Duo 270C. This was the computer for me! I ditched the IIvx and never looked back. Four pounds, a color screen, completely portable, powerful, and fun! Two years later, I left the Navy to earn my MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. Needing to upgrade to the PowerPC technology, I found a used Duo 2300C for sale in Houston. Without upgrading a single other component, I used that computer as my primary system for the next four years.

Setting up a military relocation website, I traveled the country with that Duo never very far from my side. True, you needed to carry the right components with you, as is true of any laptop. But the ability to use the a computer on the road and then to come home, simply plug it into the dock, and keep right on working was perfect - no networking or downloading to floppies or any of that other nonsense to worry about.

Yes, in the business school and in the business world I constantly put up with questions about the usefulness of the Macintosh in a world dominated by PCs. That is occasionally true and forces me to find a workaround. But I have never had a problem with the viruses or the incompatibilities that plague that world either. Being left out of those conversations is a true blessing.

It seems hard to believe that my first Duo purchase was almost ten years ago. Now I teach college and run the MilitaryTowns.com website. While my Duo 2300C is slow by today's standards, I still have it for road trips. It is essentially just for email and word processing, but due to security checkpoint delays I usually leave it at home on most trips now.

Thanks to understanding employers, Low End Mac, and eBay, I have been able to place a Macintosh everywhere that I would normally need a computer so there is not much need for a laptop computer any more. However, if Apple ever reintroduces a true subcompact computer system, I would be an early adopter.

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