How long have you been using Apple products?

Sad Professor

It's Apple's 40th anniversary today, so perhaps a bit of reflection is in order.

What was your first Apple product and what do you remember about it?

I'll go first:

My first Mac was a Performa 5200 which I received as a birthday present circa 1997. It was my first computer and having never used Windows I didn't initially understand the difference, which caused a lot of disappointment as I discovered that it couldn't play PC games.

One of the things I most remember about that computer was the tutorials that taught you things like drag and drop, copy and paste, creating and saving documents, etc. They were extremely well designed and really added to the user-friendliness of the machine.

There was a wonderful simplicity to classic Mac OS. When I eventually got to use Windows 95/98 I discovered it was a confusing mess in comparison. A lot of that simplicity was lost in the shift to Mac OS X, which it should be noted took a looong time. I think I was still using the classic environment until 10.3.

Anyway, what was your first Mac?

Creamy Goodness

First Apple product was the iPad 3rd gen. Fell in love instantly.

First PC was an Intel poly MacBook think it was early 2007. Still in use today nearly 10 years since it was bought. Replaced it full time with a MacBook Air in 2011 which is my main machine. Work machine is a retina 5K iMac. All have been perfect machines.

First iPhone was the original and will never go back.

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to Apple products but I've become hooked.

baby and crumble

We only had Macs in our school so I've used Macs since I was 12. My favourite was the coloured iMacs.

My first ever laptop was a white MacBook and I loved it.

Since then I've had an iPad, iPod, a few iPhones and I'm planning on a Mac Mini set up in my study.

whiterebel

Had a look at PCs in the mid 90's. Couldn't make head nor tail of them. Where to save files etc was a disaster that I Couldn't figure out.
Then Apple were doing a sale as they had warehouses full of Performas they couldn't get rid of. After using one, I got a 5300 running 7.5.1 which was a complete and utter dog. Cost £700 down from £2200.......As they upgraded the OS to 7.5.3, 7.5.5, 7.6, up through 8.0 things got better and better until it was a steady reliable machine. Then a G3 tower, Wallstreet Powerbook G3 as I was working as an implant in Apple at the time. Got the first of the Mac Minis, and I must have had 3 or 4 by this stage. Got a 12" Aluminium Powerbook G4 867GHz (the one with the hot bottom) back in 2004, which they changed to the 1GHz as it ran much cooler, which is still working (Weighs a bloody ton, though!)
2010 MacBook Pro which my son now has. All 4 in the house have iPhones, I started with 3G, then 4, 4s, 5s now 6. Wife has iPad Air, I have iPad 4 and Mini 2. Typing this on a MBA from 2012. Mother, Father, brother and sister in laws, one of my best friends all converted to Macs. No great sell, they could just see the way they worked.

Sad Professor

Yeah I never had trouble converting people to Mac. Macs sell themselves, as I used to say.

And I meant to mention how unstable System 7.5 was. I remember the frequent freezes and wasted support calls to Apple well. Although on the plus side I did learn how to check for extension conflicts. :pac:

4068ac1elhodqr

1997 Black Power Mac 5500, special edition, 1,000 notes. It even had a built in FM radio & TV tuner inside the combo unit! splendid at the time.

Have since used PC's, recently back to Mac Air OSX for software, both have their own advantages.
but currently switching mobile devices from iPad to Android Phablet for a change as iTunes sucks A$$.

Type 17

I saw and used these:

An Apple II, in 1981, in a friend's dad's business in Sandymount, Dublin, it was used for accounting, I think.

A Quadra 475 (I think), in 1991, housed in a wooden lectern-style case in Dublin Castle visitor's centre (I was a tour guide there at the time), used in conjunction with a third-party 14" CRT touchscreen(!) monitor to provide a map of Ireland, with all of the Office of Public Works sites represented by touchable symbols to open pop-up (finder-based, not browser-based) windows about each OPW site.

The first Mac I actually owned was the (awful) 1995 Performa 630AV, followed by a whole series of iMacs

beauf

Used Loads in College, IIfx, SE, Plus, Quadra's etc. all system 6 and 7.

ZENER

My first Mac wasn't actually a Mac at all. I was never a PC/Windows fan so my early days of computing were on Amigas, spending a pretty penny on an A4000 040/25. Happily for me the Amiga used the same CPU as the Mac and some clever so and so released an "Emulator" called Shapeshifter which, with the use of some Apple Mac ROMs, would allow Amiga users to run a Mac system with OS 8.1. Having access to Photoshop was the clincher for me. Sure the Amiga had some great graphics applications - DPaint and ImageFX to name just 2 but no more Amigas were made when Commodore went bust so the Mac was the perfect sub.

So technically I've been using Macs since about 1991. Using them ever since in various guises - iBooks, PowerBooks, PowerMacs and on into the Intel era starting with a Hackintosh, MacBook Pro, iPads, iMacs. I currently have a collection of about 25 different Macs !

Ken

Greentree_uk

1989, first was an Se, then a classic, iici, iisi, 6400, 8100, beige G3 DT, G4 sawtooth, lampshade Imac 17", heck I've owned so many I could be here all day, 7100, 7200 every iteration of the 4452/53/54/62/63/ 75/73/7600 series, G3 tower, l have had G3 iBooks, G3/G4 PowerBooks, MacBooks. Also star max clones how many remember those? Newtons too! You name it I've had it, touched it or worked on it, but then I did work in the trade for 13 years.

Most fun I had was upgrading back in the late nineties, CPUs, voodoo 3 cards, scsi, etc and I can say that none of them was ever as fast as a new machine! My favourite? Probably the G4 tower, though I do like my iMac 5k

Deep Thought

In School early 80's we used Apple IIe

Beyond that, 2003 Ipod 3rd Gen and then 2007 First Mac book and Iphone

Arbie

Mid-90s in school, we used Mac Classic for Corel Draw. In college an iBook G4, iPod Mini, then at work a MacBook, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, another MacBook. I recently put my 2015 MacBook on top of my 2002 iBook (still working!!) and the difference in size is incredible.

fjon

Early 90s used (green screen) Macs in school. Mid 90s used Macs in college (with full colour!).
Bought a plastic white MacBook in 2006 and upgraded to a MacBook pro a few years later.

Cabaal

Got a 1st gen Edge iPhone second hand about 8 months after it was released in the USA years back, found it great and kept it for about 3-4 years. Eventually replaced it with an android device and the decision was down to money.

Back myself a Macbook in 2007 while in Las Vegas and got myself a iMac 27" in 2011, while I barely use the Macbook I use the iMac every day and when it is due to be replaced I'll be getting another iMac thats for sure.

Used to do some very occasional tech support on OS8/9 and OSX in work years back, used to dread it as the queries were only a few times a year so was clueless most of the time. Found out there's two kinds of Mac users....those that are completely clueless or those that actually know what to do, there never appeared to be a middle ground.

whippet

I got my first Mac back in 2003, it was a 15" PowerBook G4 - have had a 15" MacBook Pro, 13" MacBook Pro. 13" MacBook Air and a couple of variations of iMacs down through the years.

Have had iPhone since Gen1 as well as iPad from Gen1.

Currently still have the 13" MBA and 27" iMac.

However, this year I took the plunge and got a MS Surface Pro 4 and have been using it as my main machine. Never thought I would make the change over, but it has replaced my MBA and iPad and as of yet I really don't miss the Mac.

At home the iMac is the media hub in the house distributed via ATV and Airport base stations, but for productivity Office 365 / OneNote / OneDrive has meant the swap over to Win 10 for the main device has been quite painless.

Zcott

I'm one of the later Apple switchers. The first gen iPod hooked me in, and since then it's been all iPhones and iPads along the way. Picked up a second hand PowerBook around 2006 and that converted me to the Mac as well.

My dad worked in computer science in the 80s, so I remember being put down with MacPaint in the late 80s but I was never a fan until much later.

Mredsnapper

Apple IIe in 1986. Hated their later gear though. Have a 13inch mac book now and the hardware software integration is nice but I really think Linux is honestly more useable - but lacks the nice h/w and integration with some third party packages.

Colonel Panic

My first use of Macs would've been in secondary school and through college on assorted PPC Macintoshes. The first one I bought was a 2003 Powerbook G4, Then a Sandy Bridge "Blackbook" and now a Macbook Pro which is 5 years old but just got a new logic board.

I've also had a few desktop Macs along with way. Late PPC G4 towers, early Core Duo iMacs but am not too interested.

Next up I'll probably get a Skylake based Macbook Pro whenever they come out.

Elessar

Since film school so about 2004/2005 or so. We used final cut on iMacs in college to edit our footage and I fell in love with OSX as a result. Ended up getting an iBook in 2005. Then a Core2Duo Macbook Pro in 2007 or so (what an incredible machine that was for the time!). Then about every 4 years an upgrade. I'm on a fully loaded 2014 Haswell 2.8GHz Macbook Pro at the mo. Complete desktop replacement. Great machine but I would love it to be lighter. I'm really interested in external graphics aswell so I might just upgrade to the next model with TB3 and get the Razer Core external chassis for windows gaming!

maccored

first ever apple product (to own) was a 7100-80av in 1994. in those days, it was a terribly fast machine in comparison to what was around. First used an SE around 1988 or 89

boombang

My family bought a coloured iMac in 1998 or so. I found the compatibility issues with a PC-oriented internet and related issues really annoying.

In college I had the choice of using either OS and generally went over to an environment I felt I could control in Windows.

My wife has an ipad which I also find a frustrating device due to the lack of user control of moving content between files.

Zero love for the mac here.

My first was an iPod Mini back around 2004. Followed soon by the first Mac Mini G4. I never really warmed to OS X (I'm sure I would if I gave it more time and effort) but I upgraded to the 30GB 5G iPod, which is still used by my parents in a dock. Then the iPhone 4, 5S and 6.

Simon201

Sister brought over a Mac Plus from UK - used to love playing Tetris on it! That and the occasional CV - that was about all I did on it!

After that it was an LCII/Orange iMac DV/eMac/iMac G5/iMac Aluminium/iMac 27" 2010/iMac 27" 2013

One of the biggest joys in the old days (apart from the internet) was going from a 120mb HD on the LCII to a 10gb one on the iMac DV!

jahalpin

I've been using Apple products since around 1991 as we had Apple IIe's in school

I've had an iPhone 3GS , a Mac Mini (C2D c.2008) , iPad Mini, iPod Touch, 2 * iPad Nanos and am typing this on a 2015 MBP 13in

The gaps are due to the fact that I normally use Windows PC's and Android or Windows phones. I have Windows 8.1 installed on this MBP so I can it occasionally