Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, MacBook Pros and more. Optical Drives for Apple iBooks, Powerbooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros in Stock. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

Other World Computing: Big Deals on Big LCDs: 23" 'TrueHD' up to 2048x1152 + USB2 Hub & WebCam $279.99. Specials on 20" to 30" from $167.99. Freight from only $3.95!

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

My First Mac

The Mac 512K and Microsoft Word Changed My Life

- 2008.05.22

del.icio.us Bookmark in del.icio.us

I remember it well. It was January of 1990. My new husband was a young organic nerdy guy from Palo Alto - his mom translated engineer-speak at Apple into manuals, and his school was awash in Apples. I was older and rougher, a flannel-shirted tomboy from rural Oregon where schools were often awash, another depressed guitar player and hick Kesey-wannabe writer with a massive old manual Royal typewriter and a box of manuscripts.

Mac 512K

The odd little beige box with the tiny black and white screen was just another indication that my beloved was a Genuine Smart Guy, my intellectual equal, and that was all I needed to know.

But one day in the grey slodgy throes of morning sickness and boredom, I idly asked for a demonstration of something on "that little computer".

"It's called an Apple Macintosh 512K," he said proudly. "One slot holds a disk with a program, the other is where you save your work."

The drives whirred and clicked. He explained how to drive the mouse, click on the "icons". On to the real magic, he showed me a program called simply "Word". Type a sentence. Erase. Start over, change the order, substitute something else . . . moving words around with a pointer instead of whiteout and rewrites. Simple. Fun. Economical. Easy.

Omigod.

The next week the manual typewriter went to Goodwill. I loved the chatter of the dot matrix printer spewing out grocery lists, short stories, letters to the editor, original song lyrics. The word nerd was in heaven. I learned to SuperPaint.

Every two years we got a new used Mac from relatives higher up the financial food chain. I got sucked into many hours of BBS. My band was one of the first in Eugene to have a website. The kids became Mac-literate before they were potty-trained.

Now, a dozen used Macs later, I'm a budding multimedia artist squeaking along with a Power Mac 8500 and a Pismo laptop, both maxed out on DIY upgrades. I'm looking to upgrade again, feeling the old anticipation idea of another new-to-me Mac, undoubtedly acquired through dealer links on Low End Mac (just like my last two laptops).

But nothing will ever be as quite as big as the complete paradigm shift that occurred on encountering my first personal computer ever, the Mac 512K. It literally changed my life. LEM

Share the story of your first Mac experience by emailing with "My First Mac" as your subject.

Recent My First Mac articles

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Go to the My First Mac index.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.