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Welcome to Macintosh
Remembering My First Apple and Macintosh Experiences
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- 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.

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.
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....
Recent Welcome to Macintosh articles
- IBM Model M: The One True Keyboard, 05.12. Many consider the IBM Model M keyboard the finest computer keyboard ever made. Here's why.
- I Still Use My LC, 02.20. An interview with Scott Baret, who has been using the same Macintosh LC since 1991.
- Hooked on Classics (Classic Macs, That Is), 02.02. An interview with John Meshelany Jr, who has been hooked on Macs since kindergarten.
- 25 Years: The Macintosh Legacy, 01.23. On January 24, 1984, the world said hello to a new kind of computer that reshaped the personal computer industry.
- More in the Welcome to Macintosh 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 Content on Low End Mac
- Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X.
- Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html
- WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs.
- IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
- QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
- More links in our archive.
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.
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