The first Mac I ever
used was a G3 Power MacIntosh. Oh boy, did I CRAVE it. It was impossibly expensive, though. I was only starting my graphic designer career, still living in Poland and earning Polish money, and I thought I would never be able to afford a Mac. Later, after I moved to the Netherlands, I bought a second-hand white MacBook 1,1 OR 2,1 – unfortunately (I wish I hadn’t) I recycled it a few years ago
The battery was dead, it didn’t work with AirPort Extreme which didn’t stop me from forcing it into the port that I only later found was unsuitable for it, but oh boy, was this computer
lovely. I wish I kept it just to have it.
My employee at the time gave us something like €1,500 to spend on a computer of our choice. I got myself a maxed-out Windows machine and discovered that with a Mac at work and with a MacBook I didn’t really want to deal with Windows, so I hackintoshed it. Three years later, I got a 27” iMac I eventually broke by trying to clean up the dust under the screen. I replaced it with another hackintosh tower because I couldn’t afford a new iMac with the specs I needed. During the Dark Ages of the butterfly keyboard – I am not the most delicate of typists and broke four keyboards (the ‘E’ key always went first) within three weeks – I bought a Lenovo Yoga C930. I battled Windows 10 for a while until I couldn’t take it anymore, I spent a few days hackintoshing that, too, and I can tell you a Mac laptop with a touchscreen and a built-in pen isn’t all that exciting.
When the M1 was announced, I dropped the Yoga like a VERY HOT (especially in summer) potato and grabbed an M1 Air. I’m typing on an M4 MBP right now and oh boy, I love it so much. My favourite was the 12” MacBook, though. It might have been underpowered, which I never really noticed, and the keyboard was the butterfly one – but I never managed to break it, only had to use compressed air sometimes (that really wasn’t Apple’s finest hour…) I am very excited about the potential A18-or-whatever 12.9” MacBook, if it’s as light as the 12” was but with a larger screen in same-sized enclosure, I’ll probably find an excuse to buy one.
The biggest difference between my hackintoshes and actual Apple products – apart from Big Hac, the one I replaced my iMac with – was that the hackintoshes never
felt premium and never
looked great. The maxed-out Yoga cost more than the 2017 MBP. It was also unapologetically plastic and the trackpad was unapologetically s***ty. Replacing it with the Air was like a breath of fresh, um, air. The white MacBook, the 12” rMB, the M1 Air, the M4 MBP all gave me the feeling that I was dealing with magic in form of a truly beautiful machine.
I like my iPhone a lot. I mostly use my iPad to play Balatro. I prefer to read on a Kobo. But I can’t see myself ever leaving the Mac, and not just because I can’t hackintosh things anymore. Apart from maaaaybe Surface, nothing even touches Apple’s quality. And thanks to Apple Silicon, Macs no longer feel like a neglected afterthought. I only miss the tapered Air chassis. Bring it back with the 12.9” MacBook and watch me struggle to explain to my spouse why I
need another Mac laptop even though mine is a powerhouse.
Thanks for this thread, I loved reading about people’s debuts
