Comments on: Mac at 25: Readers reminisce

CNET readers write about their most vivid memories of the groundbreaking Macintosh.

[mojo_9]

In 1981 I was a systems engineer at Data General and was told about a job opening at Apple in NYC. When I interviewed with Bill Coldrick, the New York regional sales manager, I said that while being the first systems engineer for Apple in NYC was interesting, why does Apple need an SE for the Apple II? I had one and it was pretty simple (in comparison to DG minis). He told me about an as yet to be announced computer that would use the Motorola 68000 chip. I asked him if Apple was getting into the multi-user server business and he said no, it was for a single user. My jaw dropped, what? An 8mhz 16bit chip that could address a max of 16mb of RAM, all for one user? What could it possible do that required so much horsepower? Coming from a world of character terminals attached to DG Nova and Eclipse minis I could not imagine what he was talking about.

Nonetheless I decided to take the job and then, at the national sales meeting in Hawaii in October of 1982, we were ushered, under heavy security, into a tent and introduced to the Lisa. With it's mouse and windowing system it was the single most amazing technology shock I have ever experienced. We played with Lisa Write, Lisa Draw, Lisa Calc, and Lisa OS, reported the bugs we found and then tried to help the sales guys sell it. At $10,000 and another $5,000 for a 5mb Profile hard disk drive it was way too expensive but it did show the way.

The following year at the sales meeting in Hawaii we had the same type of unveiling for the Macintosh, where we also saw a preview of the upcoming Superbowl ad (with the woman throwing a hammer at the screen). There was a lot of skepticism about a little version of the Lisa that could only run one app at a time and yet there was something quite exciting about its quick graphics and portability. It was a thrill to go on sales calls and then, after an introduction, watch corporate executives smile, then laugh, as they interacted with it for the first time.

What a time it was to work for Apple.

[mojo_9]

In 1981 I was a systems engineer at Data General and was told about a job opening at Apple in NYC. When I interviewed with Bill Coldrick, the New York regional sales manager, I said that while being the first systems engineer for Apple in NYC was interesting, why does Apple need an SE for the Apple II? I had one and it was pretty simple (in comparison to DG minis). He told me about an as yet to be announced computer that would use the Motorola 68000 chip. I asked him if Apple was getting into the multi-user server business and he said no, it was for a single user. My jaw dropped, what? An 8mhz 16bit chip that could address a max of 16mb of RAM, all for one user? What could it possible do that required so much horsepower? Coming from a world of character terminals attached to DG Nova and Eclipse minis I could not imagine what he was talking about.

Nonetheless I decided to take the job and then, at the national sales meeting in Hawaii in October of 1982, we were ushered, under heavy security, into a tent and introduced to the Lisa. With it's mouse and windowing system it was the single most amazing technology shock I have ever experienced. We played with Lisa Write, Lisa Draw, Lisa Calc, and Lisa OS, reported the bugs we found and then tried to help the sales guys sell it. At $10,000 and another $5,000 for a 5mb Profile hard disk drive it was way too expensive but it did show the way.

The following year at the sales meeting in Hawaii we had the same type of unveiling for the Macintosh, where we also saw a preview of the upcoming Superbowl ad (with the woman throwing a hammer at the screen). There was a lot of skepticism about a little version of the Lisa that could only run one app at a time and yet there was something quite exciting about its quick graphics and portability. It was a thrill to go on sales calls and then, after an introduction, watch corporate executives smile, then laugh, as they interacted with it for the first time.

What a time it was to work for Apple.

-Jim Desposito
Weston, CT

[jbstygles]

I was in the navy, joined cause I figured it was better than dishwashing. I ended up a "computer technician". I had never known anything about computers - I graduated in 98 and was the last of a generation to grow up without a computer in the house. Of course, I spent most of my time scrubbing the deck on my ship, but the equipment I was responsible for gave me just enough of an introduction to Unix to spark an interest. By the time I bought my first "real computer" in 2001, Unix was basically an obsolete archeological artifact. But there was a whisper of the new macs, with OS X. Apple was, of course, dead in the water at the time, and most everyone had thought they were completely non-existent. I incidentally came across a mac dealer one day and thought I would inquire. $2000 later, I had myself an iBook and everyone laughed at me for buying an expensive, dead work horse. But I had "Terminal" on that machine, and I became a computer scientist that day. I've almost got my degree now in CS, and it all goes back to me buying that iBook. I was absolutely fascinated at what you could do with a command prompt - long after the command interface had all but died. All I can say, is that it was perfect for me - it was a Unix machine with a beautiful interface, and that's something only a few people dared to dream of. Only Steve Jobs could make that so profitable, and so desirable.

[kcotham]

Like a lot of children of the 70's, I learned about computers on an Apple ][. When I got older, my family looked to buy a computer, but the Apple ][ computers like the ones in my school were too expensive for our meagre budget. I remember us looking at the Commodore 64 and the Laser (Apple ][ clones). We eventually got the Commodore 64. When I was old enough to have money of my own to buy a new computer, I again, looked at the Macintosh. I finally settled on an Amiga 500 due to my light funds. I always followed and drooled over the Macintoshes though. I even got close to buy a Motorola clone. Finally in 1998 I was able to get my first in a line of Macintoshes. It was a PowerMac G3/300. It was a screamer. Faster than anything I had used up till then. I was studying computer networking and programming and couldn't for the life of me understand why we were playing with those 80x86 computers with their clunky, unstable, interfaces. I argued and pleaded with instructors and administration to teach Mac OS programming. No doing. They were more concerned with turning out AS/400 programmers! Several years later, I totally got out of the industry. Why? Because everyone had swallowed the Intel/Microsoft garbage, hook, line, and sinker. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life studying a system that was inherently flawed, and downright unpleasant to deal with.

I used Windows computers at work because I was made to. I would stare at Windows for 8 hours a day. What did I do when I got home? I'd turn on my Macintosh and literally feel the relief. Things worked. I could do things that would take a dozen clicks to get through a barrage of cryptic menus on the Windows machine, in just a couple of clear, easy to understand clicks on the Mac. I've always encountered hostile, anti-Macintosh sentiments from employers, friends, colleagues, and strangers on the Internet. I became a "Machead" out of response to this hostility. All I ever wanted to do was to spread the joy of using a Macintosh. I have yet not been able to easily accomplish any task that I set out to do with any of my Apple computers.

Happy Birthday Macintosh. May you never die out nor lose the path that you started on 25 years ago!!!

{PowerMac G3/300, PowerBook Duo, iBook SE/366, Newton 130, Newton 2100, PowerBook G4 17-inch, and MacBook}

[CitizenX]

In 1984 I worked for the Byte Shop in Seattle, WA. We went to the dealer introduction for the Mac at the dealer reps office. The speaker for the introduction was behind the podium giving his spiel and the Trainer from Apple, Ron Reed comes out on roller skates and a kilt carrying a fairly bulky bag. The room was kinda dark and we could see him skating back and forth behind the podium.

Eventually he comes to the podium and pulls out the Mac and places it on the podium, connects everything and turns it on. Another member of our staff and I both looked at each other at the same time and said the exact same thing. We be Mac'in now.

We also had a Mac introduction for our store, complete with a string quartet, wine and cheese and a couple of hundred personalities from the Seattle area. We also had a Super Bowl night so that we could watch the commercial itself.

[gt1948]

I was stationed at Adak Alaska watching the Super Bowl in 84 when the ad came on...I had previously read the first issue of MacWorld and was very impressed (may have been the other way around). Decided to buy that first Mac. Ordered it through an Office supply Store in Seattle Wash.
Here I am in the middle of the Aleutian chain, on an island with nothing but sailors and my Mac arrives, I was a happy camper. Matter of fact that was the happy time I had on that island that I remember LOL

Still Mac'in 25 years later
iMac intel, iMac G4, G5, Powerbook G4, iPhoneand a great Airport Extreme wireless

[baggie1208]

My very short history with Mac's
Apple Store, Manchester Arndale Shopping Centre, England. I long for one of the machines inside this masterful, beautiful shop. I soon realise I will never be able to afford one, or have the stamina to save for one, so I return to Bowlers Computer market the following weekend and buy £20 worth of parts for my make-do upgradeable PC. I was a total PC upgrade nerd at the time, with an awesome motherboard but not enough money to fulfill its potential. So i tweak it and tweak it some more until I get a decent performance out of old banger. Its noise is dreadful, the soundcard slots out at random and Windows XP takes about 5 minutes to boot and load my files.
I enjoyed playing about with PC's but needed something to simplify my life- one streamlined vision and workspace. I think- a mac would be perfect.
Now, i'm 15 and from a pretty well off family, but not in mac territory. A PC was what I would have been happy with. But, god rest her soul, my nannan passed away this october and left money behind to my mum. I asked wether it would be possible for me to have a 20" 2.66ghz iMac for Christmas. My wish was granted.
I now am the very proud owner of this beautiful piece of machinery, and will never turn back to a PC. Mac OS X boots in less than a minute and the opening times are fantastic and extremely smooth. A mac is a far more pleasureable computing experience to a PC and don't know how i've survived without it for so long.

James, Manchester, England

[joeltom]

A GUI! Coming from the DOS world that was really cool. And games with more than 3 colors! Mac had vga standard when DOS had a choice of magenta/white/cyan on black or yellow/red/green on black. Ugh! The original Prince of Persia was a knockout. Word processing with a mouse - much better than keying around all the time. I still wish someone would recode "Scarab of Ra" for intel so it would play on PC/MAC/Linux. Open source anyone? And every new hard drive seemed to come packed with Megabytes of BMUG shareware and freeware. How cool was that! Macs were great fun, efficient for work and never crashed.....Oops! Type 1 error (da bomb)......

[joeltom]

Sorry, correction to above. Macs were B&W when DOS was four-color, but were vga (640x480) when DOS games were still 320x240. Even the &W macs were higher res thatn DOS. And prince of Persia was way better graphically than Doom at 320x240 ever was...

[Kemetic_Jedi]

Being only 19 years old that means that the Mac is older than I am, however that does not mean that I am too young to know a great computer when I see one.A long time ago (1995) I was introduced to computers which were Macs in elementary school, however after that I almost never used one except for my cousins. In my house we had a Gateway PC with Windows ME on it and it was just horrible. As the time approached for me to go to college I found myself laptop searching, I was considering a Vaio and then my best friend in high school told me that I should get a Mac. I researched it and realized that a Macbook would be perfect for my major in communications. I am happy to say that I have been an Apple user for just over a year and a half now and I avoid Windows whenever possible. Also my GPA in college is better than it ever was in high school, I am in the Honors program and it's all thanks in part to my Black Macbook!!!

Thank You & Happy Birthday Apple!!!!!

[GibsonSG]

So this one time, I bought this Apple Computer, and, man, it was like so awesome. It had a this keyboard, and a mouse, and you could do stuff, like typing and clicking...yea...good times.

[lilochris]

I always remembered the first time I used a computer & that was when I was 5 years in in Kindergarden back in 1992. I was on an Apple II. I loved it & my teacher always had to cling me off of it. I loved playing Super Munchers & Oregon trail on it. But I never got to experience the MAC OS since they only ran off of floppy disks. I actually miss inserting that 5.25 floppy disk & hearing all those clicks. Soon in 1994-1995 we got Got some Macintosh Performa 400's which I also loved & it was the first time I actually used a Mac OS. Used to play this game called thinkin things and it was where I first used a little word processing. Just before my Parents sadly bought a Compaq Presario 9548 with Windows 95 which always had problems locking into MS DOS Mode but I did have my share of fun playing Casper's Brainy Book, & other classic games. My school was 99.9% Mac since I recall only seeing an old Tandy in our library running windows 95 which always had issues booting & when it did work, there weren't many programs on it.


Then our school got a new batch of All in One LC500's & Power Mac 5200's around 1996 & 1997. This first time I went on the internet was in 1997 with the Power Macintosh 5400/120LC. The first site we were told to visit was titanic.com. this was when the movie titanic was coming out. I finally got to use the Internet at home with the Compaq finally upgraded to Windows 98 using AOL Version 3.0.

It's 1998-1999 6th grade in middle school & my school ordered new Performa 6400's & the first iMacs. This was where I really went hardcore online as I was still bogged at home with our old Compaq.

My parents again bought a Compaq Presario 5000 with an Intel Pentium 3 processor & it screamed WHEN IT DID WORK. Because it was running windows ME. When Windows me worked, it worked great. I had to run the System recovery CD to wipe out loads of problems that mounted up every 2 months. My cousin gave me a pirated windows 2000 & later Windows XP which cleared the issues but then it slowed down. it was a 1Ghz but it had 256mb Ram. Whenever additional ram is added, it would freeze up after about 15 minutes.

It's 2004 & I so wanted a Mac & was so sick of the F***ing Compaq. I had my eyes set for an eMac the entire year and almost every night I would visit apple.com to look at the eMac. I didn't have the money at the time to shed $999. So I waited for 2005. But in 2005, Apple Debut the Mac Mini @ $499 and then I knew it was time for me to get my Mac. A 1.25Ghz with 512MB, 80GB HD & a Super Drive. It was the ultimate little screamer & I love and will never sell. College was coming & I needed a Laptop. My parents were willing to give me half the money for whatever laptop I wanted. My Local Apple Store was out of 12 inch 1.33Ghz iBook G4's and a kind employee took me and said they had some overstock of 1.2 Hz iBook G4's and they would sell it to me for $699. I took it in a heart beat and this Laptop finally mobilized me. I love my iBook, still use it, & will keep it alive for as long as I can.

But I needed a computer that could run windows since some college programs I was given only ran on windows & the ****** compaq always spontaneously froze. I then bought a Late 2006 17 inch 2Ghz iMac Core 2 Duo. It's my daily workhorse & it's what I'm now using. I upgraded it to 3GB RAM. I didn't trash my Mac Mini. I have it connected to a Airport Base station and it serves me as a Backup server & it's a damn good one too. My parents still aren't too aware of using the Mac so I custom built a a PC and modded the hell out of it. It's an over-clocked HT P4 @ 3.0Ghz.


Despite all my computer experiences, Computers from back than had this Classic feel quality that I miss. All the Pros & cons & how obsolete technologies were back then. THOSE WERE REALLY THE GOOD OL DAYS. I loved it all. The Macs & the Windows machine. I feel fortunate that I got to experience & grow up with all those Mac in Windows systems.

Happy Birthday Apple.

[triplec123]

i used to be a windows user with my first windows 98 hp desktop in 1998. I was new to computers and found it to run well for things such as games and word docs. Then i got internet. sure it was 56k but it still allowed viruses to flood the machine. i tried every antivirus out there and still got viruses by about 2003 i had really gotten into computers and decided to get a dell pentium 4 desktop with flat panel lcd. Big mistake. by now we had cable internet and the viruses were so bad i was having to erase and start over once a month. I also had the problem of people in my family going places they shouldn't such as porn etc. Well after about 2 years it had had many of viruses and cost me about $1000 in repairs. the machine cost me $4000 to begin with. It finally got a virus and caused the fan to blow. that was it i had had it. I then tried getting my dad to get a mac. They are expensive and he is a cheapskate. i ended up getting an $800 laptop only for a virus to destroy the disc drive making it impossible to reinstall the os. Finally the windows nightmare was over. I needed a mac that could do heavy amounts of video editing. A mac was perfect. I also could not afford viruses because i was doing video work for various people. I then got my firs mac in fall of 07 it cost me $4000 and is a 15'' macbook pro the best thing i ever bought. just only a year later of having to share it between my mom and i she decided to get her owen macbook pro. then my dad followed a few months later. I have now been virus free for over a year and still going i just wish apple would get more games such as halo 2 and grand theft auto. after what Microsoft did to my life i would never go back to windows or for that mater buy any of their stuff. Yes this includes xbox. i cant weight for the glorious day when apple takes over Microsoft and ditches windows. lol like that will ever happen. I am 18 and will be going of the specks howard an arts and communications school in the detroit area and i cant wait to see what new things i can do on my mac!!!

[kyaksrfur]

Approximately 20 some years ago when Apple computer gave every school in California a free computer I was really excited. I opened the computer we received and found an Apple II plus computer with 48K of RAM. I thought that was big-time stuff until Apple Computer came out a few months later with a 16 K. ram upgrade. Now, the computer had 64K. That was then a really big deal at that time.

Happy Birthday Apple

[i8246i]

I think the "best" moment in Apple's history is when they decided to finally bring their outdated and overpriced hardware and operating system over to an IBM-compatible processor. And then make it illegal to install it on any non-Apple machine...

Way to go on further distancing yourself from the real world, Steve!

[aaydogan]

Why is there nothing on the Apple website to celebrate or even the 25th Anniversary? Is it indicative of the shift in culture in Cupertino? It seems strange that such a milestone (albeit an arbitrary, chronological milestone) would go unmentioned.

[weaponx16]

As much as I loathe the prices of apple computers, my most impressionable moments on a computer were made on a mac. The year was 1992, I was in second grade and have never even used a computer before in my life, until the ubiquitous computer lab visit which changed my life forever.
The machine was a rustic tope color that resembled a nintendo with a full keyboard, I was enthralled with it. All I knew was that I wanted one in my home and wanted the really cool game that was on it..... the game being Oregon Trail (just ford the river)! I continued to use macs all the way through my k-12 years of school, although I am writing this on a pc, I will forever be an apple fan boy at heart. Get better Steve. The world needs you.

[Golden Fortune]

In 1984 I was a First Classman at the US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY. At that time I had sailed the world over as a midshipman in the US merchant marine. Computers onboard the ships even used tape cassettes to drive them, the floppy drives gargantuan holes on IBM machines. At school Computer Club trips consisted to visits to see the Darthmouth main frame. These units resembled those found in science fiction films. As part of curricular improvements, the computer lab acquired original Mac's and it was up to us, the computer club members, to stand watch and assist whoever wanted to use them. This simple action raised the quality of reports turned in to such extent, that we all stopped using our typewritters in favor of the Mac. The IBM's continued to be used for the chatting with the Darthmouth students, but the Mac's made everything easier. As the months went by an Apple IIc was purchased by another midshipman and the revolution started. I understand that laptops are a requirement for all midshipmen and that classes can be given via the Academy LAN.
Today I use a MacPro laptop, and two Imacs at home, one for the kids and another for the grown/ups. My life was made simpler by my encounter with the Mac back in 1984. Happy Silver Jubilee Mac !

Capt. Aurelio J. Dutari Vlieg
Panama, Republic of Panama

Thanks for the tour of Mac history and memories. Here are a few to add. When the Lisa was released, I worked for GE Information Services. I had the pleasure of creating the first annual operating plan in GE on a Lisa that Apple provided us. We created a service called AppleLink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleLink) that connected Apple with retailers, developers, and others at the time of the Mac launch. Email, bulletin boards and full text search, globally, in 1984. Apple used the service for more than 10 years. Pre-Internet you might call it. I moved to Australia and Tokyo with GEIS. While in Tokyo, Apple CEO John Sculley was staying across the street from our office at the Hotel Okura. We struck up a breakfast conversation and he visited the office to "check his AppleLink" - and have an adhoc review of the Apple business in Asia. I carried [lugged] the initial Mac portable around Asia - through customs in Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. My 6 year old son did his first programming on 128K Mac - a game written HyperCard. He migrated to PowerPC Mac and Code Warrior Gold at 10. He's now a PhD student at CalTech in computer science [simulation and animation] and remains a Mac fan.

After returning to the US, I continued to advocate for the Mac in the GE corporate role. In the early 1990's, I dropped a Mac laptop from a conference table, cracking the screen. Upon calling Apple about repair, I was told "we just checked our records. You have bought and registered at least one of every Mac models we've ever made. We're sending you a replacement free of charge. Thanks!"

After more than a decade on "the dark side", using PC's supplied by employers, I am pleased to be sending this from a MacBook Pro. Thanks for all the great products and great memories! Happy Birthday.

[hcfmax]

I was working as a sales "associate" for ComputerLand in Honolulu back in '84 when the Mac came out. A friend who was a commercial graphics artist and a real Trekkie came by the store one day and I sat down with him and showed him MacPaint, MacWrite and MS Flight Simulator. He bought the Mac and built a yoke for the flight sim using a coffee can to drive the mouse ball. Anyway, he shortly thereafter became a computer animation designer for the Star Trek movies and made a suggestion to Gene Roddenberry to use a Mac for some of their work. The result was Mac-generated Klingon text on the tactical displays in the Klingon bird of prey in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". I'm sure there has been a lot more Mac-generated graphics since then.