Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Mac Pro, MacBook Air
Twitterers remember their first Mac
Reader Sam K. (thanks!) noticed the fun on Twitter -- lots of folks are sharing their memories of the first Mac they bought/used with the #firstmac hash tag, and boy is it fun reading through them. The responses are all over the place, from the old ][e (technically my first computer ever at school, though the first one I actually owned at home was a Tandy Color Computer my Dad bought from one of his coworkers) and //c up to the old iMacs and even a few people who can only claim iPod as the first Apple product they used. The first Mac I actually owned was much later than my first steps into BASIC -- when I needed a laptop a few years ago, I picked up a 12" Powerbook G4 and have been straight OS X ever since.
It's great to read this stuff, because you can see just how Apple has shaped people's lives. I was amazed to hear all of the emotion in the calls to Steve on our talkcast last week, but looking at something like this Twitter feed (to put your own memories in, just mark a tweet with the #firstmac tag somewhere in there) really shows you how dedicated Apple's products have made the company's customers. These people have all bought a Mac, whether it was a Mac SE (errrr, a Mac Classic?) or a MacBook Air, and never looked back since. Very cool.
And while we're at it, is it possible that you're on Twitter and haven't yet started following us? If not, jump in and do so now!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bones3D said 7:29PM on 1-21-2009
First computer I ever owned/used was a RadioShack TRS-80 MC-10. It had a mere 4K of RAM onboard and an external 16K expansion module. (and god help you if you bumped it slightly during a lengthy coding session...) Also used a cassette tape recorder for storage. Like recording data straight off a really slow dial up modem.
Not sure if I still have the thing in storage somewhere, but if i find it, I might try seeing how well the data from it handles being stored in MP3 format.
In the meanwhile, my first Mac was a PowerMac 6100/60 purchased practically at launch. It died horrifically much later on after I maxed out the RAM on it and installed a maxed out PC compatibility card I custom upgraded to a 586 processor. The poor thing eventually cooked itself to death about a year later.
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reallycrazyguy said 7:29PM on 1-21-2009
Yeah, I remember learning how to use the Apple II way back. The first day, where we learned how to print "Hello World" on the screen, I asked the teacher how to make it also do a 'catalog'. The second class, I had figured it out, and it wasn't until university that I met a teacher that knew more about computers than I did...
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Lando Calrissian said 7:30PM on 1-21-2009
Balls! Apple sucks! Buy a ThinkPad, it makes you better at life, and you'll actually get a job!
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MacSmiley said 7:51PM on 1-21-2009
I twittered my 2 cents:
http://twitter.com/MacSmiley/statuses/1137763209
Thanks for your tweet, TUAW, that alerted me to this article and this Twitter "thread".
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Big John said 7:54PM on 1-21-2009
I never understood why blogs have Twitter accounts. If I want to hear what you have to say I... read your blog. Maybe even subscribe to your RSS feed!
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MacSmiley said 8:05PM on 1-21-2009
Evidently you don't "get" Twitter. Check out these two articles to inform yourself:
Twitter Tips for Beginners by David Pogue
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/technology/personaltech/15pogue-email.html?_r=1&em
How to Use Twitter Like a Pro by Sean Tibbitts:
http://aloneandunobserved.com/2009/01/17/how-to-use-twitter-like-a-pro-or-at-least-better-than-davidpogue/
Bookwise, check out Julio Ojeda-Zapata's Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging can Help or Hurt your Company
http://yourtech.typepad.com/twitinbiz/
Big John said 8:09PM on 1-21-2009
Wow. I don't "get" twitter? I guess I haven't been using it for over a year, have plenty of followers I enjoy. Followers that are *people*. Not *blogs*. I'm on Twitter to talk to someone that will talk back, or actually has something unique to say that I can't pick up from a blog like, say, TUAW.
I don't follow businesses on Twitter. They completely defeat the point of Twitter to me, and have zero utility. Go ahead and link to articles by Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and a book written by God about how I should use Twitter, and I still won't care because it's no good to me to essentially *subscribe* to an advertisement.
Macroy said 8:28PM on 1-21-2009
Some people prefer using Twitter instead of RSS readers.
Big John said 8:30PM on 1-21-2009
See, it wasn't so hard to give me a straight answer after all.
I've asked that question several times, and every time I'm told I don't "get" Twitter or the concept eludes me, etc. Thanks for an actual answer, Macroy.
Michael Rose said 11:27PM on 1-21-2009
BJ, often it's easier to reply to TUAW or send a DM on Twitter than it is to send a tip or a comment. We often will tweet items or comments that don't necessarily merit a full post, or add content and context.
We also did a separate http://twitter.com/tuaw_mwsf09 account for Macworld, which allowed for more live interaction during the show.
Mike S said 8:02PM on 1-21-2009
I feel so young that the first mac I've ever touched was a G3 iMac.
Then I feel so broke that the only mac I use now is a MacBook from the library. I loved it within 20 minutes and now when going back to my PC laptop get so angry that I can't just sweep my fingers!
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sector13 said 8:43PM on 1-21-2009
First mac was a Macintosh XL. With all 10 megs of hard disk. The first Macintosh I ever used was the Macintosh 128k. However it was my cousins. I was still working on my Apple II.
BTW the image attached to the post is not Macintosh. I thought this was about Macintosh computers not Apple computers in general. Whatever, I don't make the rules
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bc said 11:31PM on 1-21-2009
interesting how lots of people list an Apple II as their first "Mac"
...I guess too young to remember the Macintosh was first introduced in 1984, after the Apple II series had been on the market already for 6 or 7 years
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Fritz Laurel said 4:10AM on 1-22-2009
In my experience, it's typically the same people who think the company is also called "Mac" as in "hey, when is Mac going to come out with an update for this?" You wouldn't say "hey, when is Mustang going to come out with an updated style?"
And why does the title say Mac, but there's a picture of an Apple II? Apple II's are not Macs.
And, IMHO, these people are not really Mac people. They might realize Macs are better but they still don't really get it.
Eric said 11:37PM on 1-21-2009
Macintosh SE for me... I'm considering buying one if I see it for a decent (cheap) price, just to have as a reminder.
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Ted said 2:10AM on 1-22-2009
Twitter is an incredibly stupid place to do this. Not enough space to write anything even remotely interesting or meaningful.
My first Apple was an Apple II which I obtained years after its prime. Even though it was old & slow I ended up using it a lot more than my PC. The software selection on the Apple II was fantastic. I only gave in and upgraded when I got a good deal on an Atari ST. Wanted a Mac but it was too expensive at the time.
My first Mac was a G4 tower, also bought a couple years past its prime, which replaced a much faster PC. Same situation... it was an older machine but it had much better software. My PC started getting used less often until it was a glorified gaming console.
Then Apple announced the move to Intel and I built a Hacktinosh based off the original Intel Developer Kit. Used that until they announced the MacBooks. Added an iMac a couple years ago. Moved to a 17" MBP recently.
Had to go back to the Hackintosh for my desktop though. Octo-core Xeon built for less than half the price of the Mac Pro. (sorry Apple. I'll pay more to use OSX but not THAT much more)
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m said 12:42PM on 1-22-2009
TLDR
Rembert said 2:33AM on 1-22-2009
Ouch... long long ago, my first Apple. Well, actually, my 2 year old MacBook Pro is my first real Apple. But back in ehrm.... 1981? I had my first Apple clone, the Che-1b, which is a package of materials which you have to assemble and solder yourself and will eventually lead to an Apple ][ clone. Of course with CP/M (Z80) card, extra memory card (1 MB, wow) and harddisk (20 MB, really wow). Of course I had made some soldering errors so when turning the thing on the first time some parts just exploded. Others burnt silently. After some weeks of bughunting the thing worked well and did work for quite some years. My first experience with Microsoft was on this computer, with Word on which I wrote some computer books.
Good old time :-) But then I got into the IBM PC scene and only got out of it about 6 or 7 years ago with Linux and since 2 years back to Apple. No regrets :-)
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matt said 9:59AM on 1-22-2009
First Mac: late 2007 white MacBook. Probably won't be buying one again. Topcase cracked and fell apart. Got a warranty replacement. Cracked again and now out of warranty. Three stuck pixels on the screen in VERY obvious places, again, out of warranty. Fantastic OS, but the build quality sucks.
It's been completely replaced by my OSX running MSI Wind.
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jonas said 5:27AM on 5-12-2009
read through some. wasnt really that fun as you promised. and i couldnt really see how apple had shaped their lives from those messages. i do really hope it isnt so, that apple hasnt, because that would be sad.
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