Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory for Your Mac Top Quality, Competitive Price, Lifetime Backed Free Expert Support + Installation Videos too! MacBook & mini 8GB, iMac 16GB, Mac Pro up to 32GB. Click here

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

My First iMac

- 2008.05.19

Bookmark in del.icio.us

When I saw the other My First Mac articles, I figured I'd share my story too.

My Macintosh experience begins in 2003. My school had two Bondi blue iMacs, and these things were always unplugged. I asked my teacher why these computers weren't in use.

He said, "Because no one knows how to use a Macintosh." I convinced him to plug one of them in, and I turned it on.

From that moment, I have been completely in love with the GUI of Mac OS. It was so easy to use and had tons of cool features.

A few years passed. In June 2007, I was lucky enough to find an iMac, just like the one I played with at school, in a dumpster. I saved the poor thing from certain death, and it became my first Mac.

That iMac made me realize how great Apple's products are - and how they are so easy to learn.

Imagine if 72-year-old Aunt Enid were to get her very first Dell (or Dull, as I prefer to call them). She would probably have big problems navigating Windows, and those error messages (explorer.exe has performed an illegal action and had to quit. Consult your User's Guide or the hardware manufacturer if the problem persists. Illegal exception at 0x2e5466x2,55 etc.) would probably make here really confused.

Let's give Aunt Enid a Mac instead. How nice that it "just works", eh?

Being a long time PC user (from way back when I was 2 or 3), I felt just like Aunt Enid.

Anyway, that iMac now sits right next to my eMac doing pretty much nothing. I hope to install Mac OS 9 later this week and get the ol' girl running.

Since I found that iMac, I have acquired a ton of other Macs, including my entire Vintage Mac Network, a Clamshell iBook, a Dual USB iBook, a TiBook, a faster iMac, and an eMac. I will never forget that first iMac. It introduced me to the beauty of Macintosh and saved me from the ugly things known as Dulls - and instead showed me a computer can be really cool.

Thank you, Apple, for all these great computers.

Go to the index of articles by Carl Nygren.

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

Recent My First Mac articles

Thanks for the IBM PC, Dad, 01.09. Dad, thanks for bringing home that first IBM PC way back in 1981.
Overclocking a Mac mini Got Me Hooked on Souping Up Macs, 09.04. Stories of hot rodding iBooks, G3 iMacs, and PCI Power Macs on the cheap.
Mac LC III Still a Most Useful Machine, 07.30. A love affair that will last as long as they make Macs began with a used LC III in 1997, and it's still being used today.
Hooked on Macs, new and old, 07.15. Starting with an old Quadra in 2000, Royal left behind Windows and began acquiring his own stable of Macs.
More in the My First Mac index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

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.