How did you feel about your first mac?

Question

As an early christmas present I received a 13 inch macbook air, 2GB RAM and 1.86GHz dual core cpu.
I am mostly used to PC laptops running linux or often I put solaris on them. I study Computer Science and have Asperger's Syndrome.
I got my mac as windows had too much bloatware and Linux was too unstable on my 64-bit hardware (needed 6 GiB RAM for large compilations). I was going to use the macbook air to take notes and some minor work between classes such as writing assembly subroutines, C and java. The primary use of this system was going to be as a personal assistant to have my calendar and files etc.
The system is so powerful with a full 12 hours battery life when working on the localhost that it can out-do a 2.4GHz dual core with 6 GiB RAM PC running any OS. This system is now used for all my work due to it's capabilities and portability. After only one week with a mac I dont know how I lived without one, and my carer says it has made me show immense improvements day-to-day. I am now tempted to learn Objective-C as well as how to use Cocoa from Python to be more efficient, especially after seeing the perfection in this system.
How did you feel when you got your first mac?

Answer 1

A related question might be, what did you think about the introduction of the IBM PC?
I had been designing digital systems and working with computers for a few years before the PC's introduction in 1981. The mainstay systems were 8 bit Z80 or 8085 machines running at 4 or 6 MHz. They ran CP/M with its command line interface. Although the maximum memory these systems could use was 64 MB, being a single user, single-task operating sytem, even the most resource-hungry programs (word processors for instance) ran very fast. CP/M itself needed only a few K.
Dual floppy disk systems were common, 180 KB per disk unless you had double sided floppies - 360 K. The A drive booted the operating system, after which you could insert a program disk. The B drive held your data. I had one machine with a whopping 5 MB hard disk - the C drive. I treated it with special reverence.
When rumors began about IBM producing its version of a desktop PC, many people including myself had grand expectations. Clearly Big Blue would emerge as the leader in desktop computers, since they had the resources to dictate what the standard would be. Everyone knew the others would be left in the dust. What kind of processor would it use? How much memory? Would it have a slimmed down version of the multiuser, multitasking operating system used in its System/34 minicomputer? Or would it resemble something that DEC used in its PDP-11?
Well, when the IBM PC came out in 1981, needless to say it was an enormous disappointment. It wasn't much better than anything else I had already been using for three or four years already, except the PC was much, much more expensive. No hard disk unless you wanted to buy an upgraded power supply (more $$$) and then all they offered was 10 MB. Forget about multiple users or multitasking. It didn't even have the equivalent of CP/M's PIP. The whole thing seemed... intentionally crippled. This was supposed to be the future of computing? In my opinion it was a major step backward. The XT that followed it offered only minimal improvements. I rejected the IBM PC as not cost effective and kept using my CP/M dinosaurs.
So, when Apple introduced the Macintosh a couple years later I finally saw, in the flesh, what I thought a computer ought to be. A totally bit mapped display, a robust 16/32 bit processor, real sound capability (everything before it could only "beep") and a true graphical UI. You could name a file anything you want, no 8x3 idiocy. +To this day+ Windows carries remnants of 8x3 filenames!
The Macintosh blew away the PC, if not in performance, in its potential. Unlike the "crippled" PC the Mac seemed limitless. This was cool. The Mac wasn't without limitations though - there was no good way to install a hard disk for instance - but for some reason I considered those limitations trivial and believed they would be overcome in the near future. I waited for the first "upgrade" - the "Fat Mac" with a whopping 512K memory. Half a megabyte!
I used that computer for several years, until the SE/30 came out, which I kept in service for about ten years. I ultimately expanded its memory to 32 MB while PC users were struggling with extended memory or expanded memory - you had to know which was which - to get beyond the PC's stupid 640K barrier. My 30 MB HD eventually grew small, but that was easily remedied with an external SCSI drive. Although the computer did everything I ever expected it to do, the Internet eventually made it functionally obsolete. It could run a browser (forget which one) but the black and white limitation made it marginally useful.
I eventually replaced it with an iMac, which echoed the original Mac's introduction with its forward-thinking design. The iMac opened up a new world in much the same way the original Macintosh did in 1984.
All my Macs still work.
yoshitaka wrote:
... After only one week with a mac I dont know how I lived without one, and my carer says it has made me show immense improvements day-to-day.
That pretty much sums it up.
In retrospect, I believe that IBM and its marriage of convenience with Microsoft delayed the evolution of desktop computing a decade or more. I cringe whenever I think of the aggregate productivity loss and utter frustration shared by millions of PC / Windows devotees all these years.