Unpacking my new PowerBook 17" got me thinking about my Macintosh history. It has spanned 18 years and seen 12 different machines starting with a Macintosh Plus in 1987 and continuing today with a new G4 PowerBook 17".

Let's take a look back, shall we.

Mac Plus
My first Mac experience came via my mother. In her job she was given a new Macintosh Plus to do some desktop publishing jobs. She would often bring the machine home on weekends in one of the 'portable' cases. While she wasn't working on the machine I would play with MacDraw and some of the other applications. I was in junior-high and I was just happy to be using something other than the old TRS-80's or Apple IIe machines in 'Business Class'.

Mac SE
As I entered high school my mother upgraded to a Mac SE!! Soon Aldus PageMaker was installed and I really started to use the Mac. I took to PageMaker immediately. I was one of the geeks who had professionally typeset papers and reports.

When I joined the staff of the local school newspaper I was shocked to see the old 'cut and paste' method of page layout. We used Apple IIe's to 'compose' our articles which we would then print and paste on the paper layout for the camera. I couldn't take it..."why don't we just use a Mac and PageMaker?" First reason was budget, ever-present at any school, but secondly the teacher didn't know how to use the new technology and wasn't about to start learning something new. From that point on, I was not very interested in working at the school paper anymore.

For the remainder of my high school career I used that trusty Mac SE. I would often call my mom at work, "Can you bring home the Mac tonight?"

I headed off to the University of Florida knowing that I would be without a Mac for the first time. We just didn't have it in the budget to buy a Mac. I used a simple Brother word processor the next two years to write all my papers. I missed the Mac, but I was glad I waited before buying, because the PowerBooks were coming.

PowerBook 145
I remember first seeing the PowerBook 100 at the student book store Mac area. Wow. I wanted one, but the semester was almost over, the budget was thin. I started to save. The next year (August 1992) I was all ready to buy a PB 140, but the sales rep said, "wait another week, something else is coming." Sure enough the PowerBook 145 was announced. A speed bump from 16Mhz to 25Mhz and a few other tweaks marked the difference between the 140 and the 145.

With the student discount, I paid $2200 for a PowerBook 145 with 4MB RAM and a 40MB hard drive plus a StyleWriter printer. I was set!

The PowerBook went everywhere I went for the next two years. I took notes in class with the PowerBook because I have always hated my handwriting and can type rather quickly, so computer notes were better. I would seek out my favorite seats and desks with handy power outlets. I would get quite a few stares from other students, but as the years progressed more and more of them started showing up with laptops. We were still in the minority though.

I would carry a PhoneNet connector and could connect to the network easily at any one of the student computer labs to print papers on campus or 'borrow' some applications from the school. I also learned the hard way that inkjet ink was water-soluble after dashing to class in the rain to hand in my paper, which had become an inkblot.

While at UF I started to work at the Department of Ophthalmology at Shands. Many of the doctors had PowerBooks, 170's, 140's and the new 165c. I became the 'Mac Expert'. I was able to supplement my income by helping the docs out with their machines.

One of the greatest things about the PowerBooks (and still is) is the sleep function. I rarely ever turned off my machine, it always slept. I was always able to quickly pull it out of my backpack and start working away.

Back on the home-front, my mother had upgraded to a Duo 230. I played with it whenever I would come home for the weekends, but I am not counting it as one of 'my machines' for this history.

A few years into my PowerBook experience I installed a GlobalVillage TelePort Gold 14.4 modem. I could now get connected. I was able to buy the internal modem since I needed to be able to dial-in to the IBM RISC 6000 at a local ophthalmologist's office to help manage their medical practice software.

Then along came the web, it changed my life. In Gainesville we had the Alachua Freenet. I spent most of my free time browsing the web via Lynx and reading Usenet. It was then that I started to do some basic web design.

Update - June 24, 2005: I forget which year but somewhere in the late 90's I sold my 145 to a friend. I just heard from him:

I do still have the old PowerBook .... it hasn't been used in years, but I just can't seem to part with it ... it has a finicky little ribbon cable to the display (still?) ... but it served me well for quite some time.

LC II
During a few years in college my roommate had a LC II and a personal LaserWriter. We created a simple AppleTalk network and I was able to share the printer, a great thing for speedy printing. Try printing a 14-page document on a StyleWriter when you are in a hurry. The LC II was great since I got to see some things in color, but I wouldn't trade it for my PowerBook.

LC III
I returned from UF and worked for the local school board for a year while starting up my web development business. I bought a LC III to work in color and have a 'faster' machine. The modem was a Supra 28.8 external. During this year I also bought a few Apple extras.

Newton 100
One of the Mac catalogs was running a closeout on the original Newton 100 MessagePads. I bought one for $100 and just played with it. My experience was just the same as everybody else. If I was not a gadget-geek/early adopter I would have thrown it away. I did have a 2400 baud external modem, so I could check my POP mail with it. WooHoo!

Apple QuickTake
Apple's first digital camera as the QuickTake, a great little device. All pictures were stored internally and you used a serial cable to download them to the Mac. This was digital photography at the early stages, resolution was low and quality was poor, but for quick projects it beat film and a scanner. I never used the QuickTake for any serious projects, I mostly used it for fun.

Centris 610
When I finally started my own web development firm my first machine was a Centris 610. I was able to get it really cheap. The Centris was a good machine but soon gave way to a PowerMac. We had a T1 to the Internet, so the lack of processing power was made up for by connectivity.

PowerMac 7200
As soon as we could afford it I purchased a PowerMac 7200. It had a healthy 128MB of RAM and a 750MB hard drive. I soon installed a second video card and had a dual-monitor set-up. The main display was a 17" CRT, the secondary display was a 15" CRT. I was in heaven. I was the envy of every PC user and quite a few Mac users. The transition to the PowerPC platform was easy from an application standpoint. I only needed to upgrade Photoshop.

The old LC III soon joined the desk as my 'e-mail machine'. We used large doors that were sanded and stained for our desks and I had mine almost covered with Macs. However, soon another machine was on the desk, a PC. With a large PC-using client base it was necessary for me to have a similar machine to test/debug issues.

PowerBook 1400cs
My PowerBook 145 had died a few years ago, but I lived at the office, so a laptop was not a major need. After I started to give more and more talks and seminars I had to get a new laptop, a PowerBook 1400cs fit the bill. The 1400 was cool because it had the removable cover on the lid that you could put a custom photo or other insert in. The CS was cheaper than the C since it was a passive screen rather than active. The 1400 also featured 800 x 600 resolution. I found that I only used the laptop when I traveled, plus keeping e-mail and files synchronized between three Macs (LC III, PowerMac 7200, PowerBook 1400cs) was becoming quite a chore.

In hindsight I wish I would have bought the PowerBook 2400. A friend of mine had the 'Mighty-Cat' and loved it. I did as well.

The client PC demands were also increasing. It was then that I switched my main computer over.....

Gateway 5150
I bought a Gateway 5150 laptop with two docking stations to shuttle between work and home. I had ISDN at the house so working from home was no longer a major downgrade in connectivity. The Gateway was a good workhorse. I still have it today, and my wife used it for a number of years. Currently it is the 'game' machine for the three-year old.

PowerMac G3
In 2000 I started up a web division at an established computer-networking firm. As part of the start-up I purchased a PowerMac G3. The G3 was the second-generation model, made famous for its blue/transparent case. My desk consisted of the G3, a new high-end PC workstation running the pre-release version of Windows 2000 and my Gateway 5150 for e-mail. As my role in the company shifted from do-it-all to manager of a design and programming team my computer needs shifted as well. My G3 was soon on the designer's desk and for the first time in my life I was PC only.

Dell Inspiron 7100
The Gateway 5150 was soon replaced by a hulking Dell Inspiron 7100. The thing was a desktop replacement beast: fast, big screen and of course very heavy. I had a dock at home and at work. Working at home was great now that DSL was available. I was able to do everything I did on the Mac, but I did miss my favorite OS.

At the time I was also teaching web design at a local college. All the students were on Macs, I was using a Dell. It was time for another Mac. The original iBooks had come out with mixed reviews, the current PowerBooks were not very exciting. Things changed with the Dual-USB iBook.

iBook
Oh to be back. I bought a closeout 12" iBook for $999. I added an Airport card and I was in love again. Perhaps it was the few years I had been away, but being back on a Mac felt great. I had 'sleep' again. Sure Windows had put in hibernate, but it was clumsy and slow. They have never been able to touch Apple's quick shutdown and startup, which my original PowerBook 145 had.

Apple had just recently made the switch to OS X and many users ran the Classic mode to keep their legacy apps running. Since I did not have anything to look back on I completely ditched Classic and had only OS X on my iBook. I bought into all of OS X's apps, Mail, AddressBook, iCal, iTunes...etc. I also had an old friend back, BBEdit. I tend to do all my HTML work in BBEdit. I have DreamWeaver installed, but I am much faster on BBEdit.

Soon I was downloading video from my Sony Mini-DV camera to iMovie and editing away. All my photos were in iPhoto and iTunes held all my music. The Mac was my 'Digital Hub'. The Airport and wifi have been a revolution in computing. I easily move from a variety of offices, homes and coffee shops with ease, always remaining connected.

When I started Hyku in 2003 I was Mac only, been that way ever since. Photoshop, QuickBooks, Office, OmniGraffle and the iLife apps do everything I need.

Mac Classic
Shortly after I got my iBook in a moment of nostalgia, I bought an old Mac Classic off eBay. I think I paid around $25 for the unit, shipping was $35 though. The Classic sat on a shelf behind my desk at work. Just about everybody commented on the relic when they saw it. (The Classic is pictured right with my new PowerBook)

I had visions of buying a PhoneNet-to-Ethernet adapter and hooking it up to the network. There were plenty of simple POP e-mail clients that could work on the old 8Mhz machine. Nothing ever came of those dreams. Currently the Classic sits on a tiny desk with a tiny chair for my three-year-old son. He loves typing in ClarisWorks. He thinks it's a web browser, all he types are domain names like PBSKids.org and Google.com.

iPod 1G
Soon after getting the iBook I purchased the original iPod. The first-gen device still works great. The battery is a little low, but not completely dead. What is funny about the iPod now is the looks I get from many of the 'kids' who see it. They ask, "is that the 60GB model? it's so thick." I probably would have bought a new unit if it were not for....

iPod Shuffle
The Shuffle has been great. It goes everywhere with me. I find that I rarely use my original iPod anymore. The lack of screen and ability to locate specific tracks does not bother me. The only thing I use the original for is to listen to podcasts while in the car.

The 500Mhz iBook had recently been showing its age. I would visit the Apple Store and play with the new PowerBooks and iBooks and think about what to get next. I loved the form-factor of my 12" iBook so perhaps the 12" PowerBook would be a good replacement? But man that screen on the 17" is great. Initially I figured I would go for an extreme, either the 12" or the 17". The 15" PowerBook wasn't really an option. Screen size soon won out over portability, so the battle between the 15" and 17" was on. For the past few months I have flip-flopped between which machine I wanted to get. I even asked for some input. Well I ignored all the comments and went with the 17" model.

PowerBook 17"
So the next era begins. The 18th year with a Mac and the 12th machine that I have used. If I counted all the Macs I used it would be well over 50. Often I would help friends or business associates with their Macs, so I worked with plenty of other Macs, Performas, Clones, PowerMacs and PowerBooks.

The new machine is a few days old now and is breaking in nicely. I have already adjusted to the keyboard and larger trackpad. I opened up the iBook yesterday to transfer a few last files and the old keyboard seem awkward, the trackpad small and slow. Poor guy.

What's Next?
It seemed ironic that I started writing this post on the day that CNET reported the Apple/Intel news. The news has prompted a great deal of discussion on the web.

I have used Macs since the original 68xxx chips, made the switch to PowerPC, then to the G3 and now the G4...(no G5 laptop yet). I even used some of the PowerComputing clones at a client site back in the mid-90's.

What will the switch to Intel mean to me? - as long as the OS remains the same, not much. Like many Mac users, I am loyal to the OS, but I am locked into their hardware. Will there now be a number of hardware options? Probably not. Like the switch to PowerPC and again with OS X, the Mac users have shown they will live with a conversion from one system to another. I will probably need to buy new versions of a number of apps, but as long as the migration path matches my upgrade cycle things will work out fine.

Am I anti-Windows? Not really. My wife has a new IBM ThinkPad and I work on that from time to time. I am still very capable on a Wintel machine. But of course Apple has the Windows world beat on style. Show me a single 17" Windows laptop that does not look like a huge hunk of poorly designed plastic.

It's been a fun 18 years on the Mac, something you can't always say about a PC. See you in another 18 years.