. | A Knowledgeable Mac BigotKevin ThomasHow my Mac helps me keep my sanity My
first Mac was a Mac IIcx, but
that's only a small part of the story.
Back in 1988, I had a friend who rented a room from me.
He was very much into Apple Computers and kept trying to
interest me -- with little to no effect. At that time, what
little computer experience I had was with a PC. Needless to
say, I didn't want to buy one. He kept trying though,
showing me his Apple IIc and then later his Apple IIgs. I
was unimpressed. Then he finally moved up to a Mac
II. This one got me interested, but I wasn't quite ready
to buy one yet. Shortly after this, he moved out to his own
place. He would host computer game nights for his other
friends with Macs. They would link them together via
AppleTalk using TOPS (anyone remember that program?) and
play games like NetTrek all night. I would come over to
watch, and sometimes someone would let me play on their
computer. I was beginning to get hooked but still couldn't
justify the expense even to myself. Then one day someone brought over the color version of
Strategic Conquest. That did it. I had to have my own Mac so
I could play anytime I wanted to. Fortunately for me, Apple has just announced the IIcx, a
slightly more affordable (if you can call a $5600 computer
affordable) version of the Mac
IIx that had been released shortly before. Of course, in
those days, you didn't pay anywhere near the list price for
computers. I ultimately purchased my IIcx for $3050 (what a
steal!). However, that didn't include anything but the
mouse. Not the hard drive, memory, video card, keyboard, or
monitor. I had to buy everything else separately. Lucky for
me, I was able to find four 1 MB SIMMs for the unbelievable
price of $537 and a 100 MB hard drive for only $900.
Wow! When my friends complain about the price of Macs today, I
tell them this story. I am sure most longtime users can
remember those days.  Since
then, I've owned more Macs than I can remember, including a
Mac Portable, one of the
PowerBooks, several Power Macs and, finally, the iMac
DV Special Edition that is 2 weeks old. Along the way, I have gone from being an ignorant bigoted
Mac user to a knowledgeable bigoted Mac user. I now work as an IS person for the mortgage division of a
midsize national bank. When I started, I had very little PC
specific knowledge. I have learned a great deal in the last
few years, most of it bad. It continues to amaze me that
Windows came to dominate the market. I spend most of my day
dealing with problems relating to Windows. But then I
remember back to the many less than honest things that
Microsoft has pulled over the years, and it all makes
sense. I'm just happy at the end of the day when I can go home
to my Mac. I hope that Apple continues to surprise and amaze even
its most ardent fans, not to mention it biggest critics. If
it does this, Apple will continue to grow stronger. My First Macintosh- Complete PC nut goes Mac, Fred Forney,
3/29/2000
- The compelling Mac, Sean C. Cunningham,
3/21/2000
- Under my skin, Katherine (BondiBlue2),
3/14/2000
- A rescued Fat Mac, Jonathan Wise,
3/6/2000
- A boy and his Mac, Glenn Dawes,
3/1/2000
- Absolutely essential, Hans
Echterbecker, 2/22/2000
- The long and winding road, Mike Butler,
2/15/2000
- A knowledgeable Mac bigot, Kevin
Thomas, 2/8/2000
- My First Mac index
Want to share your story on My First Mac? Send email to
dknight@mail.iserv.net.
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