Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
January 24, 2024 makes the 40th anniversary of Apple's Mac. The Mac has gone a long way since its Motorola days. I still remember my first Mac, an entry-level iBook built with a WiFi adapter add-on, which I bought from one of the authorized Apple stores (there is still NO Apple Store!) in the country. I still remember the reason why I switched to the Mac.
Rewind a few years back before I became a Mac user. I was using a custom-built PC clone with 512KB of RAM (yes, kids, that much RAM!) with a 40MB hard disk drive and 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives. This clone powered a CRT monitor, which was enough then for my Pascal and 8086-assembly language programming needs. MS-DOS, DR-DOS, Desqview, you name it, I played with it. I longed for a Dell or Compaq computer back then (never a Mac since I thought of it as a toy - yeah, I was one of those haha), primarily because you get to see their adverts on PC Magazine. When Microsoft Windows came, it was when my PC frustration started, and that frustration even led to some CPU kicking, literally, each time the computer crashes! This experience continued until Linux came along.
The days of Linux on the desktop brought a different experience as compared to Windows. THIS was how computers are supposed to be! The four boxes of ten 3.5" floppy disks installer were worth the trouble. Running Linux at home and using a Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems workstations at work taught me how real computers work (sorry, Microsoft - those frequent crashing, not to forget those malware, and the FUD hurled against free, open source software did not resonate well with me, ending in me hating the company! I was an "Anything But Microsoft!" kind of guy). The *nix-based computers connected to the internet before Bill Gates even recognized its importance! :) Mosaic, Netscape, elm, pine, gopher, Usenet newsgroups, irc, finger, ping, telnet, ftp - those were the days.
My Linux on the desktop at home changed when I decided to switch to the Mac. No more clones for me. One of the deciding factors was OS X! Yes, the OS X with its BSD heritage (and adverts about computer scientists using Macs) brought the best of both worlds, i.e., the world of Unix (which I am familiar with thanks to Linux, SunOS/Solaris and Irix) and the beauty of the hardware (the ease of use was a given). No Windows PC can beat that combination!
The iBook progressed to the Powerbook and the Macbook and Macbook Pros. From there it progressed to investing on iMacs and Mac Minis at home. At work, I helped bring in eMacs, iMacs, a lot of portable Macs of different models, and even the XServes!
Fast forward to today, I now have an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and hopefully the Vision Pro in the future. It all started with the Mac! So Happy 40th Mac!
And one more thing, I am no longer an "Anything But Microsoft" guy after Satya Nadella steered the company to support free, open source software.