. | My First MacFive Years with MacsVincent Crowley- Vincenzo lives in Australia, where he enjoys
contributing to Quadlist
and other Low End Mac
email lists -- and fixing up older Macs for
first-time users.
Unlike some others, I am not a long time computer user. I
first saw a punch card in 1973 -- never used them. In 1988,
while walking through a shopping mall, I saw an Amiga 500
running a "screen saver," I think, which absolutely blew me
away watching these balls rising and falling from the
goo. In 1994 I decided that computers can't be that scary. So
I went to the news agents and bought about six magazines. I
knew there were IBM compatibles and Macs, but that was it,
apart from the fact that Macs were more expensive. So I
worked out what my minimum requirements were -- 2x CD ROM,
at least 5 MB RAM, and a SVGA monitor. Every PC shop I went to (seven) in my home town, showed
me something similar to what I wanted, but none would allow
me to touch them or use them. I happened to be passing the
sole Apple distributor for 1500k (950 miles), so I called
in. The guy spent an hour and a half showing and teaching my
then-six-year-old daughter and I how they work. I brought my
wife back the next day, and he took an hour of his time to
show her. The end result, based purely on pre-sales service, was
that we bought our first computer, an LC 575 with 5/160, a
colour StyleWriter Pro printer, and $2500 dollars worth of
software. All compliments of an insurance policy taken out
twenty years prior and forgotten about. We still own the computer. It now sports 36 MB RAM, a
full 040, and a 260 MB hard drive. It runs beautifully. Up
until several months ago it was the main machine I used. I
have since switched to a PowerBook 3400/200.
The 575 last froze or crashed in November 1998. My wife uses
it as a Jukebox, and my three children use it for homework
and games, along with their own computer. "Heather," our LC 575, has a permanent place within this
family and will never be sold. Who could give away their
first child? We have since had a few more children. Some
fostered for a short period, and others to join "Heather" as
permanent members. Vincenzo My First Macintosh- Hooked on Macs, Jay Patel,
1/24/2000
- PC to Mac and back and back, "Rob the
Hood," 1/18/2000
- Ten Years with an SE, Matt Wolanski
1/12/2000
- Salvaged Compact Macs, "Adam Ant,"
12/2/99
- Macs for design, Lynn, 11/18/99
- From Fat Mac to iMac, Wayne Crannell,
11/26/99
- Macs Work With Me, Tom Gabriel,
10/25/99
- My First Mac index
Want to share your story on My First Mac? Send email to
dknight@mail.iserv.net.
- <back to My
First Mac
index>
| . |  System Profiles
Lisa/Macintosh
XL
Compact
Macs
Mac II
Mac LC
PowerBook (68k)
Performa
500 Series
Centris/Quadra
Power Mac
PowerBook
(PPC)
iMac
Maclone Profiles
Earliest
Maclones
Motorola
StarMax
Power
Computing
Umax
SuperMac  Mac Resources
Mac
Daniel
Best Buys, Used
Macs
LEM Help Desk
Memory Upgrade
Guide
Troubleshooting
Mac Software
Mac Classified
Mac
Dealers
Low End Mac
Museum
Best Mac Links
56k Modem Page
Email Lists
Compact
Macs
Vintage
Macs
Quadlist
(68040)
PowerBooks
PowerMacs
The iMac list
SuperMacs
Mac
Webmasters
more lists
Other Pages
Filtering Spam
The
Macquarium
Apple
Timeline
Macspeak
Top Pages
Support Low End Mac
Outpost.com
MacMall
AuctionMac
Amazon.com
MusicForce - More resources on the links
page.
| . |