Yesterday, January 24th, was the 30th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh computer. I wasn’t aware of that until my browser brought up its default page, apple.com. I was pleasantly surprised and greeted with (expectedly) the great advertising that Apple is known for (click here for 30 Years of The Mac).
Seeing this immediately took me back to Apple back in 1988. I was a junior engineer, my first job, in an office that was run by Windows 3.1 machines – one for every employee, others for ancillary functions. Our office business manager, an avid Mac user, insisted we have three Macs in the office to hand the business functions of the program (then Naval satellite communications program) – a Mac Plus with a 20 MB external hard drive, a Mac SE, and a Mac IICi. David, our office manager, was an older gentlemen, well learned, but enjoyed using Macs so much (without trying to sell its merits) that he unknowingly sold me on its merits in the same way (I later found out) that Apple commercials did, but without the sales pitch (so to speak). He continually showed me how the user-centric design of the Mac easily helped him in his daily activities, in and out of the office. For me, already experienced in using the Windows platform, it was like a no-brainer that this platform would be my computing choice on a regular basis.
It wasn’t until two years later that I was able to purchase my first Mac (via our employee discount program) – a Mac Classic. Brand new, It cost me $1200. Specs: 4MB RAM. 40MB HD, running at a whopping 8MHz, running System 7.0 (fondly remembering this as it is sitting to the right of me as I type this post, emitting a very soft hum, Darkside as the screen saver).
The purchase of that Mac began a wonderful journey – word processing, graphics, connecting to the Internet via a 2400 baud external modem, and the beginning of using it for my favorite activity, music production. A small, all-n-one computer with a 9″ black and white screen – so easy to use, so user-centric, yet so beautiful.
Since then I’ve owned (let’s see): A Powerbook 100, 145, 165c, 170, 1400cs, Powerbook G3 Pismo, Powerbook G4 Aluminum, iBook, Blue and White G4 Tower, Silver G4 Tower, original iMac, Mac IIci, Quadra 605, Power Mac 7100 (2), Power Mac G5 (2), Macbook (Black) and Mac Mini Intel Core Duo (I think that covers it). One G5, the Mac Mini, and the Macbook are the core of my music production studio, while the second G5 (the one I am typing this from) is used for podcast production and simple word processing and web surfing. I think the last brand new Mac I purchased was the iBook in the mid-90s. While I am not a Mac guru, I’ve found it so easy to maintain them that I’ve purchased used ever since then.
I’m not sure how Apple did it and continues to do it, be it advertising, perpetuating the Mac *culture* or what, but however they are doing it, it has, and continues to be a fantastic voyage. I am forever, a Mac fanboy.
Happy Birthday, Mac…and many more.
::: oceans of rhythm :::
Fresh.
