User since 1991. Started with System 6 on an LC. Didn’t own one until 1996 or so though, when a small business I did some work for gifted me the Performa 630CD they’d recently replaced with a PowerMac.
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How long have you been a Mac user?
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Bought my first Mac in the late 1980s, though my parents had one before then that I used for word processing (this was pre-internet, of course).
Never owned any other brand.
Though the way Apple are going with their desktop hardware options (or lack of them) the chances of me switching to a Linux box are as high as they have ever been, and rising.
Never owned any other brand.
Though the way Apple are going with their desktop hardware options (or lack of them) the chances of me switching to a Linux box are as high as they have ever been, and rising.
I had an Apple ][e in the early '80s... used a Mac SE at work back in around 1992 or so. Around 2000 I had a couple of experiences with Mac Minis... and in 2008 I purchased a used MacBook... moved for good in 2010.
Been a Mac user since 1985, when I went to university in NZ. There they had a lab full of the original Macs, and we each had a couple of hours a week available on them.... Easy peasy compared to the lab full of "IBM clones" using MS-DOS across the corridor, which we were also taught to use. "What a waste of time," I thought at the time. Windows 2.0 was still a couple of years away, and I had graduated by the time it was released.
Graduating into an economic crash, I went back to itinerant seasonal farm work to to make a living. It was nearly 10 years before I touched a computer again. Then it it was various incarnations of Windows, which were all fairly messy and crash prone compared to the Mac I had used years before. With a change of occupation into teaching in 1999, I started to use computers a little more. The coming of Windows XP was a distinct improvement.
Eventually I wanted my own computer so I could do more work at home. I wanted something that was easily occasionally transportable, but did not want a portable to tote around on a daily basis. When the Mac Mini arrived on the scene, it fitted my needs, and I was happily back to Mac in 2005.....
Much easier to use than Windows. I still occasionally use Windows OS computers in the office at work. They upgraded most of them to Windows 10 last year.... an improvement, but still a hassle compared to my Mac at home, where I do most of my work outside of classes.
When the HDD and power supply of my 2005 original Mac Mini failed I replaced it with the early 2009 Mac Mini, which I am still using. It is the only Apple product I own..... the only 21st century tech I own. My motorcycle is a 1997 model and my telephone is a $20.00 Nokia that I have had for years. With a more itinerant phase of life in the offing, I could soon be looking to replace the Mac Mini with a MacBook Air.
Graduating into an economic crash, I went back to itinerant seasonal farm work to to make a living. It was nearly 10 years before I touched a computer again. Then it it was various incarnations of Windows, which were all fairly messy and crash prone compared to the Mac I had used years before. With a change of occupation into teaching in 1999, I started to use computers a little more. The coming of Windows XP was a distinct improvement.
Eventually I wanted my own computer so I could do more work at home. I wanted something that was easily occasionally transportable, but did not want a portable to tote around on a daily basis. When the Mac Mini arrived on the scene, it fitted my needs, and I was happily back to Mac in 2005.....
Much easier to use than Windows. I still occasionally use Windows OS computers in the office at work. They upgraded most of them to Windows 10 last year.... an improvement, but still a hassle compared to my Mac at home, where I do most of my work outside of classes.
When the HDD and power supply of my 2005 original Mac Mini failed I replaced it with the early 2009 Mac Mini, which I am still using. It is the only Apple product I own..... the only 21st century tech I own. My motorcycle is a 1997 model and my telephone is a $20.00 Nokia that I have had for years. With a more itinerant phase of life in the offing, I could soon be looking to replace the Mac Mini with a MacBook Air.
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I bit the bullet in 2008; I had a windows computer that had been literally brought to its knees after about three years mainly by the resource needs of the virus scanner and thought I would take a risk, buy something funky, and get off the windows train. I bought a Mac pro 3,1 which amazingly I'm still using today and is such a testament to the build quality of the machinery and the quality of the OS. Windows grinds to a halt after a couple of years of operating system updates by comparison, yet my mac pro is packing the most up to date OS without a problem. Over the years I reckon 50% of my machine has been replaced, added to or renewed one way or another and now I'm just pinning my hopes on finding something worthy of purchase when (ulp) the new new new mac pro is released
My first experience with a Mac was on a college course in 2002. I loved the hardware, a Power Mac G4 with matching monitor but I didn't get on with OS 9.
Bought an iPod 18 months later which to bits and was also very impressed by my mate's Power Mac G5 with OS X, so I went out and got my first Mac and have stayed with them ever since.
Bought an iPod 18 months later which to bits and was also very impressed by my mate's Power Mac G5 with OS X, so I went out and got my first Mac and have stayed with them ever since.
I first used a Mac when I was in Kindergarten in 2004. My elementary school's computer lab was full of 1999-2000 iMac G3s in all colors of the rainbow. They were either running Mac OS 8.5 or OS 9 and it was always a blast to use them each Tuesday we were in the lab.
In the fall of 2005, they replaced all of the Macs with Dell Optiplex GX270s. and it was not until a couple of years later my family got a Mac.
My parents had a 2004 Hewlett Packard tower and eventually purchased a non-unibody MacBook in 2007 when the hp finally died. I've been a regular user ever since then and am still pleased with where the company is headed.
In the fall of 2005, they replaced all of the Macs with Dell Optiplex GX270s. and it was not until a couple of years later my family got a Mac.
My parents had a 2004 Hewlett Packard tower and eventually purchased a non-unibody MacBook in 2007 when the hp finally died. I've been a regular user ever since then and am still pleased with where the company is headed.
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Apple ll in about 1980 (see pic) then Apple Lisa pretty much as soon as it came out (paid for by the company I worked for!!) ..... since then a succession of Macs, MacBook Airs and currently MacBook Pro 13inch.
Got my first Mac in 1990 in college (Mac Classic II with I think 4MB of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive).
I'm typing this on a 5K iMac with about 6,000 times as much RAM and 25,000 times the storage space as that Classic. The 1990 purchase price of the Classic would have around $3500 in today's dollars.
I probably get about the same amount of actual useful work done.
I'm typing this on a 5K iMac with about 6,000 times as much RAM and 25,000 times the storage space as that Classic. The 1990 purchase price of the Classic would have around $3500 in today's dollars.
I probably get about the same amount of actual useful work done.
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Fell in love with Apple while working on a (Disneyland-trip-winning!) 5th grade class video in 2002. Indigo iMac DV (or whatever version it was). OS X was so visually appealing.
Lusted over Macs for a long time, and was finally able to snag one in 2004. eMac. I was a dumb middle schooler addicted to new things, even if that meant trading down. Had a marshmallow MacBook for a while in college, sold that too.
Eventually became an adult with my own paycheck and a sense of ownership and purchased a refurb 2014 13" MBP in 2015.
Lusted over Macs for a long time, and was finally able to snag one in 2004. eMac. I was a dumb middle schooler addicted to new things, even if that meant trading down. Had a marshmallow MacBook for a while in college, sold that too.
Eventually became an adult with my own paycheck and a sense of ownership and purchased a refurb 2014 13" MBP in 2015.
Since 1994-ish. I wanted to go into Graphic Design an my college had just upgraded their whole computer lab to new PowerMac 7100s. My dad got a new job and they used Macs at the office. So it was nearly a no-brainer to get a Mac for home for both of us to use. It was a real fun experience for both of us to learn on it, doing different things. After my horrid experience with what was garbage PC software for graphics, using Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop was simply mind blowingly easy. Today I am a full time Mac/iOS programmer at a well known company.
Probably the old Apple IIS with a four inch floppy disk back in elementary school was the first time I ever touched a Mac. I remember getting the lesson not to touch the center of the disc and only write on the label and nowhere else. Plus some monitors were only green screens!
Basically after that it was all Windows (95, 98, XP, 7, 8, 10) and Linux (Mint, Bodhi) for me until the end of 2017 when I was gifted an iMac for helping out. So I haven't been a Mac user for very long, but because its based on the same system as linux it doesn't feel like its too confusing.
Plus some monitors were only green screens!Basically after that it was all Windows (95, 98, XP, 7, 8, 10) and Linux (Mint, Bodhi) for me until the end of 2017 when I was gifted an iMac for helping out. So I haven't been a Mac user for very long, but because its based on the same system as linux it doesn't feel like its too confusing.
Since 2011 when i had my original MacBook Pro for university (it still works to this day) i then got a iMac 2012 for home and it still works to this day as well, i'm just waiting on an iMac redesign before i upgrade to a new one. Before i owned my first Mac i always saw them in shops and so on but never tried one out because i thought all computers did the same thing, boy how wrong i was the Mac has been the best investment in technology i ever made, it's seen me through university and into work (to this day i still use my 2011 MacBook Pro and 2012 iMac) and has been the most reliable and brilliant to use on a daily basis.
Funny enough it was the Mac that started me to become an Apple fan, i had a MacBook Pro 2011 then an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch, my next purchase will probably be the HomePod since i'm in the Apple ecosystem.
the Mac has been the best investment in technology i ever made, it's seen me through university and into work (to this day i still use my 2011 MacBook Pro and 2012 iMac) and has been the most reliable and brilliant to use on a daily basis. Funny enough it was the Mac that started me to become an Apple fan, i had a MacBook Pro 2011 then an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch, my next purchase will probably be the HomePod since i'm in the Apple ecosystem.
The first Apple product I ever touched was in a department store in Pompano Beach, FL sometime in the mid to late 1970s. They had set up a demo booth in the electronics department. I’m not sure if it was manned by store employees or Apple people. I’m not sure what model they were showing but I remember there was no floppy drive; data was input via a cassette player.
In 1979 I had 2 Apple II machines in my elementery music classroom; I was the teacher. I briefly switched to an Atari PC (yes, they made computers for about 5 minutes) because they had a built in MIDI interface. Macs came out in 1984 and shortly thereafter Apple released a MIDI interface that connected to the ADB port. With the first release of “Logic” I came back to Apple with a Mac SE. By this time I was not only the music teacher but also the school’s “computer guy.” When I retired in 2016 I’d had hands on experience with just about every model and OS Apple had made to that point.
In 1979 I had 2 Apple II machines in my elementery music classroom; I was the teacher. I briefly switched to an Atari PC (yes, they made computers for about 5 minutes) because they had a built in MIDI interface. Macs came out in 1984 and shortly thereafter Apple released a MIDI interface that connected to the ADB port. With the first release of “Logic” I came back to Apple with a Mac SE. By this time I was not only the music teacher but also the school’s “computer guy.” When I retired in 2016 I’d had hands on experience with just about every model and OS Apple had made to that point.