Friday 24 January 2014

Mac Turns 30, Our First Mac Is 29

In January 1985 we bought our first Mac, a 512.  With all accessories, including printer, it cost well over $4,000, which was a lot of money.

I've been thinking of that purchase today, which is touted as being Mac's 30th anniversary.  I hadn't realized just what early adopters were in this case.  But the time had come to get some kind of machine to do word processing and the Kaypro, which The Writers' Union of Canada was recommending for writers at the time, had one of those terrible yellow on green screens that I knew would give me migraines.

So, after much humming and hawing--and some arguing too about where we'd put it: Lee's office or mine--we went Macintosh.  The compromise location was our bedroom, where it stayed until we got our second Mac two years later and we could each have one in our individual space.

We've stayed Mac ever since, largely because of its ease of use.  We don't have any other Apple devices however--no iPhone or iPad, not even an iPod.  Don't have a cell phone at all in fact, which says something about my attitude toward technology.  If it can make your work simpler, go for it.  If not, why waste money?


1 comment:

lagatta à montréal said...

I worked at le service d'information de la CSN back then (later, "communications"), very early adopters. I have an early MAC too, must check what model, but I bought it second-hand.

Idem - I have a MacBook now, but no iPhone, Tablet or whatever. The MacBook is small enough to carry anywhere I really need a computer, so I see no reason now to buy those other things.

I hated computers before the Mac, precisely because they were either white on black or some garish colour scheme. Nauseating...