In another article we talked about Adam Engst and others talking about their early Macs. Lynn and Fred talk about their favorite Macs…
In 1981, I was looking for a way to calculate purchasing needs for Sky Chefs’ kitchen in Chicago. I got an Apple ][+ and developed an extensive VisiCalc spreadsheet. I really devoted myself to learning the Apple even taking programming lessons at the local community college. There I learned structured programming using AppleSoft installed from a cassette tape into an Apple ][.
In 1982, I was transfered to Honolulu and naturally took my Apple with me. I quickly upgraded to an Apple //e and started looking for a way to do publications that combined text and graphics.
The the Macintosh was introduced. I wasn’t too impressed since it only had 128K of memory and a single floppy drive. It wasn’t until the Fat Mac was introduced that I purchased a Mac in early ’85. (By the way I remember that Apple was proud that from January 24, 1984 until Sept 30, 1984 they were able to sell 125K Macs.)
(Graphic from RetroTechnology.com – they sell this stuff)
After being transfered to Boston in ’86, where I attended my first MacWorld Expo, I upgraded the 512Ke to a Plus. I had gotten the ROM upgrades while still in Hono.
I continued to use the Mac Plus with as much of 4 Megs of RAM until 1992, when I got myself a Centris 600. However I purchased a MacBottom hard drive before leaving Boston and it was only $1350 for 30 Megs.
However, the hard drive died on me in ’91 after my move to Dallas/Fort Worth.
I then used a RAMDisk utility to work with the Plus. It had a Ram’s head as an icon. I was able to install the OS off of one floppy and then add Fonts from another. Then use a third disk for the application and a fourth for the data. (Had an external floppy drive.)
I still remember that machine fondly, but I am also proud of my G5 iMac.
How about your story?
Fred’s Story
I too remember all those times too — and I guess you read my article “Goodbye Macs”. However, my favorite mac is actually the iMac I’m running this very moment. It really out-performs any other I’ve ever owned, and for all the intensive work I do — it’s a pretty remarkable computer.
I was warned when I bought this Mac. The hard drive would fail. The monitor would go flaky, yada, yada. Well, after nearly 2 years, all is well and I’m getting it done! I was warned I would need a tower to do the Photoshop work I do. Didn’t happen. And, so far I’ve been sailing along with only minor slow-downs when working on half-gig Photoshop files.
Yes, I do have my peeves: like the directories not updating, or those sustained pauses when something is supposed to happen… but doesn’t … until now.
All in all, I cannot complain a bit. My second favorite is the G4 Aluminum PowerBook I’m using right now. It’s never failed, and continues to be the road-worthy powerhouse I bought it for. Oh, and by the way, they both run Classic beautifully — so I didn’t have to give up my favorite “old” apps, like the trim and fit FileMaker Pro 4, or HyperCard either. With the new processing speed, and a thorough knowledge of HyperScripting, this computer gets more done before lunch on Monday than most people get done all week. Well, almost.
