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Remembering...

Master Dave Updated - 26th Jan 2009

When I first started looking for a computer, I was looking at the IBM-PC, the Atari ST, and the never-did-show-up 68k version of Radio Shack's Color Computer. Eventually, I narrowed it down to three: Macintosh, NeXT, and Sun.

Only the Macintosh SE/x (or "SE/30" if you prefer) had the power I wanted at a price I could afford. By saving for seven months, I was able to come up with the 3763.44 dollars for the computer, keyboard, shipping, sales tax, and what all else.

It worked very well for Me. Programming, desktop publishing, mathematics, 3D design, PostScript graphics (on My printer), letters to mom, PhotoShop, videocassette and TV program databases, other databases, too, it did any of these any time I turned it on. I never needed to re-configure anything.

Being detail-oriented, I had My system software backed up on diskettes. The diskettes merely needed to be copied to a blank drive. All the file numbers and folder names were pre-configured so that only this simple restore was needed to have a complete working system. Well, I did include some applications, too.

I have used IBM-PCs, Macintosh, Wintels, and OSX. Macintosh is the clear winner for ease of use: It does things in a logical manner, much the way I do things. The other three are painful to use.

When put in storage---I moved---My Quadra 840 was still working well, downloading hundreds of megabytes every day over 56k dial-up, and doing most any job I wanted done. It was thirteen and one-half years old. What else still works and works well! at that age????

Now I use a G4 Quicksilver. It is seven years old, but except for OSX, I like it.

A word of advice for all you fanbois out there (and you know who you are): Instead of bad-mouthing a product you do not own... tell Us why YOUR product is superior to the product you haven't got! Maybe those who are not fans of your product could use your advice.

'Course in the early days, Macintosh was FUN to use. Many people made lots of programs and stacks just for fun, as well as for 'productivity'. User groups were attended by (mostly) helpful people, and sharing and communicating were the order of the day.
Nowadays everything is run by yuppies, and has almost everything interesting drained from it! Computers, too. Apple ceased being a computer company, and became a Fortune 400 company with the same location and surface appearance. Oh, well!