I don't think I have had as many Macs as he. My first Mac was a Mac Plus, with 1MB internal hard drive, and an external 20MB hard drive, plus Image Writer II. I used that computer from 1988-1996 when it truly ran out of room and its screen was going a second time. It was a good computer though because I could pack it up and take it to work (in 1993-94) rather than work on a horribly outdated PC on which I couldn't do any sort of graphic design.
I think when I got the computer it was on system 2 or 3. I got it the day my niece was born so can clearly place when I entered the computer age. Despite having a 35% discount because I was a teacher, the entire package still cost something like $3500. Yikes. I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation and got all the way through seminary plus the first three years of parish ministry with that computer.
My next computer was one of the first power computers, a Mac 6100/66 with 350MB on its hard drive. Like so many others, I thought I would never fill it up — the space seemed endless. It was… for awhile but around 2000, I had to buy an external hard drive, a LaCie Tsunami, 100MB that bailed me out for a while, but in the latter years of that Mac, I kept getting warning messages of 'memory full.' On that computer, I entered the internet age, on my birthday in 1996. I remember what an intimidating thing it was to type something, hit 'send' and have it show up for all to read. In any event, I went from system 4 to 7-something on this computer.
In February 2001, I took the leap and got a Mac G4 with a 20G hard drive and 56K internal modem (unlike the previous Mac where I used a 14K modem). I still use this computer. It is on Panther — if I could get enough stuff off the hard drive, I could bump it up to Tiger but given its chips, it won't go further than that. It was a huge jump to go from OS 9 to OSX. I do like having this computer because it can run Classic; I have a bunch of applications that go with that. About four years ago, I ran up against the memory crunch problem again so have two OWC external hard drives, one that is 100GB and another 180GB on which I have all my back up material, photos and music. The system seems to work fairly well.
I don't know what I will do when this G4 croaks. Maybe I will go the Padre Mickey route and buy a Mac mini. I just like having a home computer and then a laptop.
Another day for the laptops, though anyone reading this blog in the past two years already knows that story.
Compa started out on a 512K Mac.
1 comment:
It is amazingly easy to upgrade a G4 and not terribly expensive. I put in memory, a faster processor and an 80 gig hard drive awhile back. The whole mess cost less than a Mac Mini at the time. I gave the machine to a friend and it is still humming away. It was one of the first dumbed down 450 G4s. Other World Computing provides great instructions along with great prices.
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