Welcome to Macintosh My Mac
Let me start out by saying that I am still a Macintosh user and wouldn't trade my 5 year Performa for the latest Windows-running Pentium III. I'm not the fanatic I used to be, however.I first started using a Macintosh Plus in late 1986. It was so different from the Commodore BASIC machines I had used before that the Macintosh platform has always been the standard by which other computers have been compared. At the time, my home was computer-free and the only Mac available to me was at work. I longed for the day I could possess my own machine. I started following Macworld magazine, keeping up with what was happening. We began finding more ways to use the machine at our small A/V company, eventually graduating to a Mac II model. In 1991, I moved to Seattle and started looking for work. I kept my Macworld subscription and joined the local users group Mac dBug in an attempt to keep up with what was happening and maybe, just maybe, find a job. There were a lot of new and exciting things happening with Apple, from the Quadra 950 to PowerBooks to QuickTime movies. I wanted a part of it, but couldn't afford it.
Mac dBug didn't land me a job, but my Macintosh skills eventually did. I was hired by Color Control, which was thinking about switching production from propriatary systems to desktop systems. A few months later I finally took the plunge and bought my own computer, a Macintosh IIci. I had to skimp a bit on accessories and software in order to keep the price tag low, but I got that machine on my desk. (The first day, all I could do is run HyperCard stacks and play a freebie golf game from Buick. The new software came a couple days later.) In compter marketing terms, the Mac IIci was almost outdated when I bought it, and the gap between the machine I had at home and the one I used at work continued to widen, but I k ept it until early 2000. Finally, I broke down and upgraded, first to a Quadra 950 and then to a Performa 6214. They were free, so I couldn't resist.
My fanaticism, however, began to wane over the past few years. As my company has grown, my job has become more specialized. I don't need to have as wide a knowledge of equipment or software. Our IT department aggressively pursues the developments in deskt op publishing, so there's not much new in the magazines anymore. Nor is there much of interest for my home computing needs. The industry encourages, nay expects, people to continually upgrade software and hardware, but they have left me behind. When I do upgrade, in my own frugal way, I often can't run the latest release and have to find stuff that is slightly less outdated than what I own. I let my Macworld subscription lapse, and while I love MacAddict magazine's style, it too doesn't convince me to part with my subscription dollars. I still browse the LowEndMac website and RE*PC's Seattle store, but for the most part, my Mac has become les s a baby and more just another appliance. And maybe that's how it should be.
Back to Nostalgia.updated 4/29/2001