Welcome to Macintosh

Remembering My First Apple and Macintosh Experiences

- 2008.02.08

Bong! . . . :-) . . . Welcome to Macintosh!

It's funny how there are certain things you never forget. Many of us never forget our first kiss, first car, and a lot of other firsts.

In my case, I'll never forget a few firsts: The first Apple I ever used, the first Mac I ever used, and the first Mac I ever owned. Ahhh, memories.

Time travel De Lorean from Back to the Future

Let's take a little ride in the ol' De Lorean and travel back to 1987.

The Apple IIe

Many were privileged to get to use an Apple IIe in school, and even at home. Many had green screens, and you were really something if you had a color screen. The Apple II predated the Macintosh/Windows era of computing we now know.

In the case of the Apple IIe, the keyboard, like the II and II+, was built into the computer. You had one or two 5-1/4" floppy drives, which made their own chugging sound when in the process of reading and writing to the disk.

There were no menus, no mice - none of that fancy GUI stuff. You put the disk in, flip the switch in the back, and in about a minute your program would load.

I spent many a happy hour with the Muncher series from MECC, the Oregon Trail (which I'm still trying to find a copy of for my IIe), Odell Lake, and many other cool programs. It was the first computer I ever used, and it solidified my interest in Apple and their common sense way of computing.

My First Mac

My first experience with the Mac came in 1999, when my good friend Sean gave me his Quadra 650 running System 7.5.3. What a wonderful Mac that was! Stable, user-friendly, it was a dream compared to Windows 98. This experience led me to purchase my first Mac, an Indigo iMac in December of 2000, which I still have. That Mac has served me well in 7 years time.

indigo iMac Now I turn the mic over to you, the readers of Low End Mac. What was your first Mac? What drew you to the Mac?

I'll be doing interviews with everyday Mac users, and I'd like to interview you! Send me an email to thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com if you'd like to be interviewed.

But most of all, send your stories to me, and with your permission, I'll include them in future Welcome to Macintosh columns.

Tell me about your first Mac....

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Recent Welcome to Macintosh articles

Welcome to Macintosh (Again), 2012.01.03. Tommy Thomas returns to Low End Mac with big plans.
IBM Model F: A Great Old Keyboard with an Outdated Layout, 2009.11.19. Although it used a different technology than the revered IBM Model M keyboard, the Model F was a great keyboard in its own right.
IBM Model M: The One True Keyboard, 2009.05.12. Many consider the IBM Model M keyboard the finest computer keyboard ever made. Here's why.
More in the Welcome to Macintosh index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIfx, introduced 1990.03.19. This 'wicked fast' 40 MHz Mac trumped the 33 MHz DOS world.
February 14 in LEM history: 98: A perfect compact Mac - 00: Extended computer warranties worth the cost? - Making your PC work with your Mac - 01: Customize Microsoft Word - 02: Quadra revives a passion for computing - 03: Real world performance - DIY Pismo screen replacement - Best Mac for writing - 03: Fastest browser on the Mac - 06: 15" MacBook Pro - Impressions of a newly acquired Lisa - Finding and using free WiFi - Apple should liberate OS 9 - 07: New Mac mini cheaper than upgrading a Power Mac - 08: Falling in love with OS X
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