Happy Birthday, Mac

I remember reading about the Macintosh in Byte magazine before I actually saw one. There was a review of the first Mac and an interview with the design team that was fascinating. I hadn’t really thought about the design of computers before because you didn’t really have that much choice in what you would get (and I didn’t have much money either). But once I started down the Mac road, I didn’t look back. For over a decade now all of my personal computer-related work has happened on a Mac. Today the Macintosh turns 25 which makes me think about the Macs I’ve known and loved.
The design of the Macintosh was brilliant and innovative and they’ve always stayed ahead of the curve for what was coming in computers. Being on a Mac sometimes means that you’re in strange places as the technology shifts. Sometimes it’s great with things such as FireWire for video editing and wireless networks with Airport (almost a decade ago!) and other times it’s more of a challenge (the shift away from SCSI, dropping 3.5 inch drives, and the wide range of video connectors for monitors). But they’re beautifully designed computers that work well and over the years they’ve maintained a clean look and feel that sets the tone for the other computers that follow. Even opening the box is a wonderful experience and I love seeing the simple line, “Designed by Apple in California”.I hadn’t used a Macintosh as a primary computer until I took a job at the NB Community College developing curriculum. The first Mac that I had on my desk was a Power Mac 6100, which was one of the newer computers at the time. It took a little bit of getting used to (dragging a disk to the trash to eject it was harrowing at first). But it was fun getting things set up for video and audio editing with a bunch of Power Mac 7200 desktops and a state-of-the-art Power Mac 8600.
Then I started working in a university AV department, which was an all-Mac environment (complete with Apple posters on the walls) in a sea of Windows and DOS (with a light sprinkling of Unix). They’d been firmly in the Mac camp for while, so I was able to use a lot of older Macs. A Power Mac 7300 was my desktop machine, but I burned CD-ROMs and edited video on older Macs such as an SE/30, a Quadra 840AV and even a Color Classic II.
The very first Mac in the house was the very cool PowerBook 1400 (still working, but not being used) that had a CD-ROM drive (but not burner) in it that could be swapped out for a floppy drive. I used it for many years as my primary computer and that’s when I knew that I really was a laptop person and that I also was a total Mac person as well. Using an external CD burner I would back things up by burning the contents of the entire hard drive onto a CD (since the drive was only about 750 MB).
The first desktop Mac at the house was a graphite iMac DV SE, which worked great for many years and later served as an AirPort base station when we started getting even more wireless computers. When we moved to Nova Scotia our Mac conversion was complete with both Carolyn and I having G3 PowerBooks (which actually still work more or less).
The need grew for more individual computers for everyone in the house, so we got a flat panel iMac that I used for some video editing and it was also used by the kids. Then Carolyn got a Mac Mini which after a couple of years was passed down to the kids and she got one of the 17-inch iMacs (which is her current computer).
At work I went through a couple of PowerBooks starting with a Titanium G4 PowerBook followed by an Aluminum PowerBook (my first with a glowing keyboard). Now I’m writing this on a MacBook Pro (with a glossy screen) that I’ve had since the Summer of 2007. While the design of the computers is still quite remarkable and usable, one thing that I’ve noticed is that the durability seems to be dropping. The previous two PowerBooks that I’ve had needed to be replaced because of problems with the power supply or the screen hinge bending. My MacBook Pro is having some intermittent video problems, so I may need another replacement soon and there is no question that it will be another Mac laptop. I’m a Mac lifer now.