Category Archives: Low End Mac

Analysis, advice, editorial, opinion, and commentary.

My First Mac: Doing the Diskette Shuffle

Alan Zisman,  Low End Mac, My First Mac, Zis Mac - 2014.01.26 -

I had a friend, Michael. We’d played music together in a local band, but by day he was a camera-person at a Vancouver TV station. He’d gotten a Mac early in 1984, pretty much as soon as they became available in Canada. He’d demo’ed it to me, and while I thought it was pretty neat, […]

My Long Road to the Mac

Kevin Hannon,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2014.01.23 -

My road to the Mac has been a long one. While some of my earliest experiences with computers were on a Macintosh, it would take another 15 years before I would come to own one myself. Along the way I would discover a passion for computers and technology that continues to this day.

A Different First Mac Story

Jacob White,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2014.01.13 - 2 Comments -

Many people describe their first experience of using an Apple computer as “uplifting”, “simple”, and “straightforward”, but despite being a die-hard Mac user now, I found it very different. 

Still Hooked on Macs

Simon Royal,  Low End Mac, My First Mac, Tech Spectrum - 2014.01.11 -

In 2008 I wrote a short article for Low End Mac; little did I know it would spark a regular column, over 100 more articles, and strengthen my love of all things Apple. In 2014 I am still hooked on Macs and reminisce about my first Mac.

Thanks for the IBM PC, Dad

Victor Marks,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2008.09.04 -

You spent $4,500 on the IBM PCs we have at home? The one you brought home one sunny evening as I was causing great amounts of stress for one of our baby-sitters?

Hooked on Macs, New and Old

Simon Royal,  Low End Mac, My First Mac, Tech Spectrum - 2008.07.15 -

I’ve been into computing for over 15 years, but I didn’t see the Apple light until 2000. I had always liked Macs, but they were way out of my budget. I started working for a publishing house and was using an old Quadra. Even though it was old, it was amazing. It was my first experience […]

My First iMac

Carl Nygren,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2008.05.19 -

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.

It All Started with an Apple IIc

John Hatchett,  Low End Mac, My First Mac, Recycled Computing - 2007.12.19 -

My first Apple computer was an Apple IIc. I really don’t recall very much about the IIc. I know that my wife was using Apple computers at work, since she was a special education teacher at the time. We had no children (children absorb any free money, trust me) at that time, and went to the […]

It All Started with a Mac Plus in the Classroom

Robert Alpizar,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2007.10.20 -

In 1993, I was 11 years old. My experience with Macs had amounted to whatever time I could get alone with the Mac Plus sitting in the back of the classroom. I didn’t do much then. Mostly I would just play games like Shufflepuck Café or Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? I had no […]

A Quadra with ClarisWorks and Mathematica: All You Need for a Thesis

Rick Lawson,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2007.08.27 -

It was early 1995, and I was a young graduate student in the Environmental Engineering department at Clemson University. I was finishing up my research and desperately needed a computer to produce my thesis on. There were quite a few Macs at the University, but the trend towards switching to Wintel was already picking up […]

OS X: The Best of Amiga, Linux, and the Mac OS

Ryan Callaghan,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2002.07.17 -

The first computer I can remember using was our family’s Amiga 500. We got it around 1990, when I was 10. It continued to be used by everyone for five years, until both my father and I decided independently of each other that we’d like our own PC.

I’ll Never Forget the First Time

Jeffery Adkins,  Low End Mac, Mac Lab Report, My First Mac - 2001.06.15 -

2001: My first Mac wasn’t my own. It belonged to my college professor. I think it was a 512K Fat Mac, because it booted off of a floppy and didn’t have a hard drive. It couldn’t have been later than 1985, because that’s when I graduated.

Sold on Mac for 10 Years

Melvin Ching,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.10.18 -

2000 – I was sold on the Mac a few months earlier, after having taken introductory classes on both the PC and Mac at a local university. The PC class was interesting but very code driven. It was DOS 3.3 on those big old IBM 8088s with the green or amber screens.

I Love My iBook, but I Miss My Mac SE

John Moltz,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.10.12 - 1 Comment -

Ten years ago this month I started graduate school, and I was determined not to wait in line at the computer center or rely on the kindness of friends who had their own computers. I needed my own machine. I had used PCs at work, but a friend let me use his Mac Plus to […]

My First Mac Was the First Mac

Jonathan Fletcher,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.10.05 -

In 1985, I bought a Macintosh 128K from a friend who couldn’t grasp the potential of this little miracle (let alone a tenuous brush with reality). It came with an ImageWriter I printer, no hard drive, just the internal 400K floppy, and a mouse! The keyboard had no numeric keypad, function keys, or anything, but […]

Mac Classic: My Lowest Low-End Mac

Devon Strolovitch,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.08.29 -

It was my last year of high school, and I had just moved up from typewriter to a handed-down word processor. There was an anonymous DOS clunker waiting for me to take to college. That orange-on-brown Zenith-whatever was like our old Chevy Malibu: it got you where you needed to go, but you were sort […]

A Rescued Fat Mac

LEM Staff,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.03.06 -

2000: Jonathan Wise shares: I found my first Mac in the garbage. It was a Mac 512K (Fat Mac) and had been the office computer at my church for about 5 years. It had developed the vertical line disease (for those of you who don’t know old Macs, when they get too hot, the insides […]

A Rescued Fat Mac

Jonathan Wise,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.03.06 -

I found my first Mac in the garbage. It was a Mac 512K (Fat Mac) and had been the office computer at my church for about five years. It had developed the vertical line disease (for those of you who don’t know old Macs, when they get too hot, the insides start to melt a little […]

A Boy and His Macs

Glenn Dawes,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 2000.03.01 -

My first Apple was not a Macintosh. It was an Apple IIe with a green screen and an external floppy. It worked; it wasn’t glamorous. I just used it. I did not upgrade or tinker.

From Fat Mac to iMac

Wayne Crannell,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 1999.11.26 -

I was in college when the Mac first came out, and it was about six months or so when I was able to afford one. I went to my local electronics superstore and got my Macintosh 512Ke. The “e” stood for “enhanced,” which meant it could read both sides of a floppy.

Avoiding Wintel Nightmares

Alexander Robinson,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 1999.07.12 -

I first came into contact with Apple Macs back in the early 1990s when my friend’s father purchased a Mac LC II. At the time I thought it was a load of rubbish (hey, I’d only ever used Nintendos and an Amstrad 6128+).

My Last Mac: Maybe Not

Daniel Knight,  Low End Mac, My First Mac - 1999.07.06 -

1999: Walter writes, “I have used Macs since 1993. I have three at home. My first one was a Performa 200 (Classic II). I have always loved the Mac, and I have actively encouraged people to buy them. I have ‘forced’ one on my wife who works in a PC environment – with all the […]

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