A bit of nostalgia: A Salute to Mac OS X

[Koelling]

When I was in 6th grade, getting a dollar a week for allowance. I decided to get a computer and started saving. I had to avoid spending money on the SNES when it came out or the N64 when all my other friends got them. Finally in my sophomore year of High School I had 1400$, enough to buy an iMac and ship it. I remember the state of euphoria I went through for 6 days between ordering it and waiting for it to come. It was blazingly fast at 266 mhz on OS 8.6.

Now it is 2 and a half years later and I am still using it. New RAM, new HD, added external CD-R and OS X.1.3 all installed by me.

Was I the only one who sat at my computer with the OS X disk in hand feeling like I was saying good bye to an old friend? Promising I'd visit often and worrying that it would hate me for chasing the younger, prettier OS? I still feel guilty sometimes; but I run fsck -y and lie in bed with a cigar, "Was it good for you?"

It is just so incredible that I have the power of unix and The most beautiful operating system available on my little blueberry iMac. The fact that I could go from flat OS 8 all the way to glowing quartz widgets and still be productive is what I love about OS X. I'm even getting into XDarwin apps and playing with the world of Unix.

I know I'm going to have to upgrade soon, but since all my PeeCee friends have done so twice since I got my computer because their computers broke or they had to in order to keep up I think I have gotten more than my money's worth. I will also be able to keep it around and use it for a long time yet or pass it on to my sisters for less demanding work.

People (my girlfriend) ask me why I get so excited about my computer saying "It's just a computer." To me it really isn't.

Thank you Apple

[RacerX]

Here is a shot that predates simX's Mac OS X DP3 window (at least that is what it looks like it is from).

[jokell82]

Originally posted by themacko
I'm generally new to Macs, purchased my first (the iBook I'm on now) back in August, and ran OS 9 until January. 9.1 was okay, it did it's job and I enjoyed having something other than Windows. But now that I've updated to X, I actually have a computer I like!

Before, I just used the computer for homework purposes, mainly because I didn't know how to do anything. Now I can download and rip music, burn CDs, make iMovies, save my digital pictures. Everything Apple wants you to be able to do with your Mac.

The best thing I like about OS X? The graphical look of it, I love the doc and the colorfulness.

What do I miss from Windows? A fast browser (you know I'm right) and Counter-Strike. We were freaking addicted to that game back in the dorms.

Oh, and I'd like to thank the jackass who stole my PC our freshman year. If it weren't for you, I probably would have never gotten a Mac.

Wow, I have almost the EXACT same story. My computer was stolen out of my dorm room one year ago today (Easter Sunday freshman year). I bought my first mac (the iBook I'm on now) in August.

But I used 10.0.1 from the start, and only used 9 sparingly. After 10.1 came out, I deleted 9 altogether and haven't looked back.

I still have a PC, tho, so I can still get my Half Life fix when I need one.

[simX]

I guess I could also share my short little story about how I came to use Macs, although I've been using them for a long time.

I first got onto computers when I was, oh, around three years old or so. Does anybody remember those keyboards that hooked up to your TV, and then you could use them like a computer? Of course, they weren't nearly as powerful as any personal computer today, but I used to bang on that keyboard all the time. I don't remember exactly which company made it or which model it was, though. Needless to say, I eventually banged on it too hard and it broke.

Then later we got a Mac Plus, which was my first Mac. I still remember that monotone startup chime that it makes -- if you'd like to hear it, just download MacTracker from versiontracker.com. I used to run Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle on that computer. DC and BDC still rock any games -- the only games that come close to rivaling DC and BDC are Crystal Quest and the Escape Velocity series.

Anyway, our next machine was a Macintosh IIsi. That was when we got our first internet connection, via Compuserve. We had an external 28.8 baud modem which we connected, and the only notion of the internet I had at that time was what Compuserve gave to me. I never really went on the net and looked at websites until later on when it started rapidly emerging.

We also had a Syqeust drive, and on a bunch of Syquest disks, we had a lot of games, of course. SimCity original, SimCity 2000, Prince of Persia, Spacestation Pheta, Solarian II.. all were great games of my childhood years. *sniff* I remember I stayed up really late one night playing SimCity 2000 and I ended up falling asleep, and when I got up in the morning I found that fires and an earthquake had totally demolished my city (and my dad had stupidly saved it, to boot!). Ah, well.

It sounds surprising, but my next computer was an original iMac. I always used the Macs at our elementary school and junior high school (all those IIsi's and IIcx's and Performa's), and my dad had a Powerbook 3400c (he actually had a Powerbook 150 before that, and what was funny was that later in its life the screen got damaged and a portion of the screen was yellow, even though the screen was black & white!). So when the new iMac was finally released (not announced -- released), I got my new iMac the first Saturday it came out. I remember watching that "Simplicity Shootout" video at the computer store and how I basically fell in love with it. We got a SuperDisk Drive (1x version, which my mom still uses on her iBook, although she uses her iBooks CD burning capabilities too) and a few SuperDisks. I still remember the new computer smell that it had when I finally set it up (it was just as easy as was claimed) and my dad set up his school server so we could connect through it and get free internet access. I was on that thing all the time. I played games and surfed the net and did all of that good stuff... I did all of my homework on it, played Escape Velocity, used e-mail. That was basically the first computer that I really used all the time and had to myself (my older brother didn't really need a computer at that time). I remember when I bought it, I was bragging to my friend about how I got a 233 MHz computer with a G3 processor, and *gasp* _U_S_B_ devices! He had a lowly 8600 or something (that he was considering upgrading to a G3 processor, but the Sonnet card was totally messed). That was the end of the world, and everyone was predicting that the iMac would flop because there were basically no USB devices on the market for the Mac. (And 6 million iMacs later, some people are still saying the same thing about the new iMac and Apple's awesome lineup of hardware.)

Two years later, I bought my trusty G4 cube and an accompanying 15" flat panel display, and I've been slowly amassing peripherals to accompany it (all which can be seen in my signature ). My CD burner, my SuperDisk Drive that came over from my iMac (that like I said, my mom now has), my USB microphone, etc., etc.

And that G4 cube is what I've been using ever since (although I'm really eyeing that new high-end iMac )! I'm happy to say that a PC has never infiltrated my home for at least ten years, and that's a pretty big feat for a Windows-centric world.

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by RacerX
Here is a shot that predates simX's Mac OS X DP3 window (at least that is what it looks like it is from).

Oh Yeah! I forgot about the "shelf".

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by simX
...our next machine was a Macintosh IIsi. That was when we got our first internet connection, via Compuserve. We had an external 28.8 baud modem which we connected, and the only notion of the internet I had at that time was what Compuserve gave to me. I never really went on the net and looked at websites until later on when it started rapidly emerging....

I remember using Compuserve on an Atari with an acoustic 300baud modem. But I don't remember anybody doing Internet stuff with their Mac II's.

I used a DOS machine though my 1st 2 years of college, but then I started using the Mac's in the SU instead. The first machine I used Mosaic on was a Centris 650. My very own Mac did not come until years later... unfortunately it was the crappy 7200 which always had issues. (That was the Gil Ameilo era...)

[RacerX]

I started using Macs because of one application... Theorist! It didn't run on any other platform and it was such a great little math program. I still use it today.

As for my first internet experience, It was on a SGI IRIS Indigo using xmosaic back in 1994. We also had Macs and Suns with mosaic on them, but the Indigo was the best. One of my first internet memories was watching the images of the Shoemaker-Levy comet hitting Jupiter. It was quite exciting.

After getting beck to school, I had an account in the Sun lab that I used for e-mail and browsing the web. I remember how strange it was watching the internet change from an academic tool to a place of commerce.

Here is a pic of Theorist running on my Quadra 700 (with A/UX).

[simX]

In honor of OS 9's death, I think we should revive this thread...