Edwin Tofslie has put together an amazing graphic depicting the evolution of Apple computers from their first desktop, literally made out of an old school desk it appears, to the iPhone. Very cool indeed, and a trip down memory lane as although I’ve been going on about my current defection to being a Mac user, it’s not the first time I’ve used Apple products...
My first exposure to Macs was with the Apple II, with its classic block graphics. A friend of mine had one on which we used to play text based adventure games. Then at school our forward thinking computer teacher, Mr Michael Bawtree – writer of The Student’s Calculator Book, fitted our computer room out with a selection of Macintosh Pluses, alongside the traditional BBC Micros. The Macs were generally used by the more literate students to publish their respective fanzines, and it was my first exposure to DTP (Desktop Publishing) which I would continue on my Atari ST at home.
At University we tended to use bog standard grey PCs, installed with Fortran and other Physics simulation related software. Then later during my MSc we had access to more advanced PCs with UNIX terminals to carry out more advanced C++ coding – not a Mac in sight. That was until I started work at Quidnunc in 1996, where Macs were quite common – we had a PowerBook 500, Newton and some LCs floating around from the early days when the original Quidnunc programmed the first Mac Email for Microsoft. Later, as we expanded our in house graphics capabilities, the more visually orientated employees used a mix of PowerBook G3s and PowerMac G3s for their desktops. Ah, the memories.