[Bruck]

I was a pc user for my whole life. I work as a PC tech and LAN support team administrator. Built pc's from ground up for years. Then a close friend of mine broke the mold and purchased a mac. (a Titanium G4). A few weeks later he was at my house with his laptop. I picked it up to see what it was like. My first comment was, "I feel so uneducated" and "out of the usual element". 30 min and 50 million questions later.... I was hooked. I begged him to leave it there for the night. From that day on, every mac I see, I have to use. I borrow just about anyone's powerbook just to use OSX. It's an odd craving. A month or so later my younger brother bought a Titanium g4 as well, i was constantly stealing it for hours on end.

6 months later, and i've probably used his laptop as much as he has. His laptop has inspired him to use his artistic skills to create movies. He spends countless hours filming footage and then using imovie to create hilarious episodes of fake trailers. He makes music videos of his drunken college roomates... and makes best of reels, of practical jokes... etc.

My powerbook (a 15AL/1gb/80gb(5400)/SD/BT) is shipping right now. It's on its way, and the only thing i can think about is how excited I will be to have it. PCs bore me. They have become a tool, with uses but no excitement. What is it about apple and Macs and OS X that drawn me in so tight. I crave OsX. I hang on every "stevenote". I've become a macaddict without a mac. But not for long.

What is it about these wonderfully designed machines that inspire us. Is it the craftsmenship? the everlasting attention to detail? Is it that steve the perfectionist crafts his computers with such precision that they are arguably perfect until the new one comes out?

I love my mac and I don't even own one.(yet)

Hi. My name is Lou and I'm a MacAholic.

[spalding12]

great post
my love for Mac...
began at the unversity of miami
1982
charley mallery
professor of biology
he had a friend in cupertino, california
heard about these NEW computers...
something completely different
would change the world
in a couple of months i had 2 of the ORIGINAL 128kb Macs
did everything
played flight sim in black and white for hours
slow
but delightful

and the love affair has never ended
sure... i spent SOME time on the DARK side
those darn pc's
the cursing
the kicking
the spitting
but i'm coming back now.... full force

greg

[Moose]

Originally posted by spalding12:
great post
my love for Mac...
began at the unversity of miami
1982
charley mallery
professor of biology
he had a friend in cupertino, california
heard about these NEW computers...
something completely different
would change the world
in a couple of months i had 2 of the ORIGINAL 128kb Macs
did everything
played flight sim in black and white for hours
slow
but delightful

and the love affair has never ended
sure... i spent SOME time on the DARK side
those darn pc's
the cursing
the kicking
the spitting
but i'm coming back now.... full force

greg

Bzzt. It may have been at Univ. of Miami.

But it wasn't in 1982.

[LfGrdMike]

I can answer that question. The fact that mac users can work in peace is the answer. Allow me to explain.

Apple is very innovative in everything they do, From the OS to their well designed computers. The first iBook looked like a toilet seat, and I hated it but you know.

Anyway we don't have to worry much because things just work lol. Although every once in awhile you will get a screwy update like 10.2.8 and people get all hyper. I think they get hyper because most of us just aren't used to computer problems. So when you get a kernel panic or whatever its like a surprise party.

Most of the things you can do on a mac are one click situations and then it works. Click on system prefs enable printer sharing, and your done. Know extra setting or anything. Everything is just easier to use, and its still advanced.

I do PHP and MySQL, and I can use great programs like BBEdit to do that, and apples terminal is great for mysql. As one example of apples advanced technologies they have implemented.

Apple has been smart to get rid of OS9 I have never had a kernel panic knock on wood, but the hard core features of OSX like memory protection that actually works and stuff make the mac a very good platform.

Though some die hard windows users who wouldn't leave MS if their lives depended on it would never even buy an iPod or download iTunes for windows. Although eventually people are going to get sick of microsoft, and right now apples lineup of software packages, and well designed hardware is attractive.

With every virus, trojan horse. system problem, blue screen of death, complicated setups, and restrictions that MS puts on their software; more people just roar with rage and say to themselves that they need something that works. So more people will either take the path of linux, or go to the mac. Its going to be. With linux becoming so popular, and apples marketshare starting to grow MS has some big problems right now.

Longhorn the next windows has a brand new interface that is going to be ****. Its like a internet explorer type of a thing, and its very complicated. Lets face it MS is getting worse at GUI design rather than better.

The fact that MS doesnt work on security holes and other important things, and they are diving in a pool of problems. If they don't sort these things out they are asking for it.

The more features and bloat they add the moer problems they create. They don't sort out past problems with their software. This is why their are so many viruses. If MS at least made the next release of windows tout security as a big feature. and they pulled through their wouldnt be as many problems. If they just sit back and dont care well then let them.

If they dont want to go open source thats their loss. Let them be stupid because its almost like it was meant to be.

[LfGrdMike]

I have always loved macs.

My dad bought a:
Apple II
Macintosh LC
PowerMac 6100/66 (Piece of **** this one)
Blue and White PowerMac G3
He bought a iMac 350 for me then gave it to my uncle and got me an imac 600.

I also inherited his LC and 6100. THe 6100 is long gone it had to many problems. I wish we still had that apple II

My first Mac that I actually bought was the one in my signature.
12 inch powerbook. Great machine.

We got tons of devices and software packages for the mac too. Multiple versions of everything lol.

I have a network in my room which is real nice now for many reasons. I got the iMac and PowerBook hooked up to it. When friends come over i can plug them in and we can play multi with full bandwidth. I can also share the printer, file share and remote login.

I am majoring in computer science, and starting at a junior college before i go to RIT. I will never buy a PC waste of my money. If i had to I would get an alienware and stick linux on it. I actually might do this to get more familiar with linux, but not for a long time.

As long as apples around I am with Apple until I die. Its like a marriage you know. hehe Just kidding im not that big of an addict, but I like them.

[spalding12]

if not 1982, then when?
i thought i remembered the date

greg

[jyvin563]

Originally posted by Bruck:
I was a pc user for my whole life. I work as a PC tech and LAN support team administrator. Built pc's from ground up for years. Then a close friend of mine broke the mold and purchased a mac. (a Titanium G4). A few weeks later he was at my house with his laptop. I picked it up to see what it was like. My first comment was, "I feel so uneducated" and "out of the usual element". 30 min and 50 million questions later.... I was hooked. I begged him to leave it there for the night. From that day on, every mac I see, I have to use. I borrow just about anyone's powerbook just to use OSX. It's an odd craving. A month or so later my younger brother bought a Titanium g4 as well, i was constantly stealing it for hours on end.

6 months later, and i've probably used his laptop as much as he has. His laptop has inspired him to use his artistic skills to create movies. He spends countless hours filming footage and then using imovie to create hilarious episodes of fake trailers. He makes music videos of his drunken college roomates... and makes best of reels, of practical jokes... etc.

My powerbook (a 15AL/1gb/80gb(5400)/SD/BT) is shipping right now. It's on its way, and the only thing i can think about is how excited I will be to have it. PCs bore me. They have become a tool, with uses but no excitement. What is it about apple and Macs and OS X that drawn me in so tight. I crave OsX. I hang on every "stevenote". I've become a macaddict without a mac. But not for long.

What is it about these wonderfully designed machines that inspire us. Is it the craftsmenship? the everlasting attention to detail? Is it that steve the perfectionist crafts his computers with such precision that they are arguably perfect until the new one comes out?

I love my mac and I don't even own one.(yet)

Hi. My name is Lou and I'm a MacAholic.

My story is very similar. It is amazing how anti-windows I have become. The only time I use Windows is at work and if I am fixing family member's computers.

[Moose]

Originally posted by spalding12:
if not 1982, then when?
i thought i remembered the date

greg

No earlier than 1984.

[spalding12]

not true
here's something you may not know
apple picked 12 universities in the early 80's with whom they had a "partnership." univ of miami got at least 20 of the original mac's at that time.... 1982/i'm now sure of it/we got to play with them/see them and report back to cupertino MONTHS before anyone else even knew they existed....

i have never been on the ground floor of a development process before or since.... but i was lucky to be then...

i got 2 of them then
1 bought/1 given to me
they weren't in the stores here until uly of 1984/my first year of medical school

but i saw them 2 years earlier at the UNIV. OF MIAMI
i'm am NOT sure why OUR university SO FAR from calif was picked, but it was....
and i have been an apple man ever since

greg

[Bruck]

My official first mac was an Apple II GS. it was our family's first computer, but we later bought a dell to use windows as suggested by a neighbor. What a jackass !!! Wish he had said to buy a mac, my parents would be mac gurus by now.

[spalding12]

hindsight is always 20:20 of course
i have had a typical love/hate relationship with the fruity logo for 21 years. i really believe that steve job's vision is begining to come back into focus. i know in my heart that our little company probably won't be elevated from its niche marketplace/marketshare any time soon... but i still love what it does for me...

i should tell you, however, that as i write this i am sitting at my desk in my pediatric office...
ON SOME PC CLONE!!!

how embarrassing and hypocritical

greg

[ingeniero]

Originally posted by spalding12:
hindsight is always 20:20 of course
i have had a typical love/hate relationship with the fruity logo for 21 years. i really believe that steve job's vision is begining to come back into focus. i know in my heart that our little company probably won't be elevated from its niche marketplace/marketshare any time soon... but i still love what it does for me...

i should tell you, however, that as i write this i am sitting at my desk in my pediatric office...
ON SOME PC CLONE!!!

how embarrassing and hypocritical

greg

I guess you're the doc since you mentioned going to med-school...why dont' you just rip out the evil Pee-Cee's and throw in some iMac's!!

[Moose]

Originally posted by spalding12:
not true
here's something you may not know
apple picked 12 universities in the early 80's with whom they had a "partnership." univ of miami got at least 20 of the original mac's at that time.... 1982/i'm now sure of it/we got to play with them/see them and report back to cupertino MONTHS before anyone else even knew they existed....

I would love to read more about this.

Please provide me with a webpage that tells about this.

[SEkker]

Removing Macs and Linux boxes in medical schools and hospitals is an active area by many companies. They believe that building a single OS-based environment will help reduce overall support costs.

This happened at the Univ of Minnesota last year. As a faculty member, I had access to the highest levels of decision making, in this case a university provost. The answer was they were listening to what the computer consultants told them was the lowest financial cost in the long run. I told him that was patently false (linux and apple boxes are not more expensive to maintain in the long run).

His response was that he had to listen to his consultants (which meant tossing his personal mac!) because it was supposed to be the most cost-effective solution. And he ended his note with...

"We'll see."

[spalding12]

hmmmm
a webpage
i'm going to have to search that out
at the time it was very hush hush by apple, as i remember
my professor even was flown out to cupertino for a symposium about his feelings about the computer after having overseen the use of them in the science and computer science departments of the university of miami from the fall of 1982 through the spring of 1983.

i'll do my best to find some info about that...
not sure what exist...
i do promise however that:
1. i did NOT do drugs then (or now, for that matter)
2. the info i have presented is completely accurate

we weren't the only ones to have them...
no one else in florida, however, as i remember
i also remember the end of april, 1985, buying several more with friends from medical school who were enamored by the Mac, when they became available at a store in tampa, florida.

i should also tell you that i worked at radio shack from 1980 - 1984 and was very involved in computer sales and training in ft. pierce, florida and miami as well.

i worked with radio shack from the MODEL 1 days.... (if any of you are old enough to remember that time).... which is why the U of M professor allowed me to be one of the lucky few to have one of the Macs in 1982.

i'll try to remember more

greg

[juanpacolopez]

Originally posted by jyvin563:
My story is very similar. It is amazing how anti-windows I have become. The only time I use Windows is at work and if I am fixing family member's computers.

Add me top the list too...

I was a Windows user for years. Once I started doing sysadmin work I bailed on Windows and switched to Linux. When my then (trusty) Athlon box packed it in and died a very painful (motherboard frying) kind of death, I was eager to get a laptop. I figured I should take a better look at OSX, since I had forsaken Windows anyhow but craved a more "professional" and "elegant" UI than anything offered up in the Linux world.

Upon comparing features/price I decided I could only get an iBook, but I did. It was slow, kind of cheap feeling, and far too expensive ($1600 for a 600MHz combo drive at the time); but I loved it more than any machine I'd ever used, simply because of OS X.

A year later my financial situation was markedly improved, and I decided to take the plunge (through necessity actually) and get a PowerBook. I've never owned a better piece of electronic equipment before or since

[nobitacu]

Very nice post. I was at the same spot you are right now last March, and I will never again look back to my pc dark days...

Glad you made the switch to the light side.


Ming

[Link]

They have the most elegant unix-compatible OS!

And they don't stop fording the other companies to innovate either. 'nuff said.