My Computer History, or: Why I Want an Apple
posted on june 5, 2002, tag: me
The first computer I ever played with was the work machine my dad brought home and placed on the desk in his office. The purpose, apparently, was for the box to collect dust. I rarely saw him use it, and when he did it was only for a minutes at a time. I never got to play with it until he bought the first computer game I ever played: Test Drive. It was a rather simple driving game (basically you went straight or turned around a long corner; other cars tried to hit you and if you got hit your windshield cracked and you were 'dead'). I enjoyed it.
A year or so later (I must have been about 6 or 7), I started playing around with my grandfather's computer when we would visit his house. These were the days of DOS, so to play any games I had to learn how to navigate my way around. Slowly but surely, I figured out how to do anything I needed to. Shortly thereafter, I was playing SimCity, Life & Death and Wolfenstien3D like a madman.
It wasn't until junior highschool that I was around computers on a regular basis, however. In 7th grade I found something even more interesting than games. I would frequent the library to mess around on the Apple MAC LC II. Using Netscape 1.0, I would constantly browse the most amazing thing I had ever seen—the Internet. Back then I had no understanding, however, so I only went on the school district's website and looked around. Still, it was fun.
In 8th grade everything really started to pick up. Two of my friends had computers with Internet access (one with AOL and one with Netscape and a dial-up account), and I would frequent either house just to be on the Internet. Eventually I began to understand a bit about how it worked, and how much it was capable of.
In the beginning of 9th grade, one of those two friends got Netscape's newest version—one that had a tool to make a webpage—and we created what became my first website. Hosted on her dad's ISP webspace (I think it was 2MB of space if I remember, maybe less), we made a small site for movie reviews. Shortly after it started, it died from lack of updating (don't get me started on how this habit has continually come back to haunt me).
In 9th grade I received a Vendex Headstart (Intel 8086 8MHz, 640k ROM, no HDD) PC and an Apple Fat MAC (8MHz, 512k RAM, 512k of ROM, no HDD) from one of my mother's friends. The Vendex was DOS based, and had two programs: WordPerfect and Tetris. I wrote plenty of things on this box and played Tetris until I wanted to puke. But the Apple was even more interesting. After playing a text-based game (I can't recall the name—it was a murder mystery), I decided I wanted to create my own. After much fiddling around, I designed a game that was text-based and asked you for different disks depending on what you did. It was ridiculous, but fun. I also began keeping a journal and drawing plenty of pictures in Paint. The Apple eventually died and the Vendex followed shortly after. Angered that I couldn't the Vendex to work (it at least would turn on, the Apple was just garbage), I finally opened the case and (using a staple gun) stapled the motherboard while it was on. Needless to say, that put it to sleep for good (as well as exhausting pink smoke that quickly filled my basement and scared me).
Later that year, I convinced my grandmother to purchase a laptop for me. Don't ask me how. I got a Texas-Instruments Pentium 100MHz laptop with 8MB of RAM and a 700MB hard disk drive. I was in heaven. Windows95 was pre-installed when I bought it, and the first time I booted it up, I had to create a copy of Windows using 35 disks (the computer didn't have a CD-ROM drive). Still, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I took that thing with me everywhere. I still have it today, although since I got it I've upgraded the RAM to the maximum 40MB and put a 6GB hard drive in (it's also running Windows98 and has an external PCMCIA 6x CD-ROM drive). However, I still never had an Internet connection so the computer was used mostly for writing papers and drawing in MS Paint.
In highschool, I became the webmaster of the school newspaper and attempted to create a website. That never turned out. But I did use Hotmail a lot. I eventually started hanging out with Steve, and he helped me to create what I considered my first 'official' homepage, "Garrett's Realm," on GeoCities. Despite stating at the bottom of the main page that the site would be "updated daily," it was never updated once after its creation.
When I moved to New Jersey in 1997, I was using my family's WebTV for Internet access, and decided I wanted to create a website. Using the WebTV, I created a site called "Bull Sht" with free hosting from Angelfire.com. Trust me, it was difficult writing HTML with the WebTV unit. Especially since I really didn't even know HTML all that well. Eventually I began spending my lunch time in the computer room at school and slowly learned HTML completely. Bull Sht had a new version before the year was up and it was actually semi-decent. It was just a collection of writing.
In the summer between 11th and 12th grade, I finally got a PCMCIA modem for my old laptop and got Internet access at home. Shortly after I found the first version of AOL Instant Messenger and told Steve about the service. We began talking over AIM regularly (since he lived in Seattle). I saved all my money from working and finally bought my very first "real" computer. A custom-built Pentium II 350MHz PC with 256MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive. I'm still using that computer as we speak (lots of little upgrades, but still the same processor).
Over the years, I've been content with my PC. But, at the same time, I still kept my eye on Apple. I loved their operating system and their versions of the programs I used. But Apple was always too expensive for me. I watched from afar as my friends bought them (or got them) and was always jealous. I always wanted one. Especially when they started to look cool. The designs have gotten better and better over the last few years, and now nothing in the PC market looks nearly as smooth. When OSX came around, I couldn't hold back my jealousy any longer. I began to lash out at my Apple toting friends whenever the opportunity arose. I hated them. And I so desperately wanted to become one of them.
Now, as I look to purchase a new computer, I know exactly what I want: I want an Apple laptop that looks great, is small and light, and is powerful enough to do what I want. Oh, and I want OSX. Am I a traitor? No. I've always loved Apple's machines. Am I an Apple freak? No. I love my PC and I will always have a PC. I could never go all-Apple. I wouldn't want to. I want to have the best of both worlds, and as a designer/developer I believe that's the smartest way to go about it.
I've begun saving my money for a new Apple iBook. I can't wait until I can buy it. I'm going stir-crazy sitting here thinking about how great it will be to have, and how long it might take me to get there with my current salary. But I don't care. I've wanted an Apple for a long, long time and I am going to finally get one. I can't wait until I see OSX on my desk next to WindowsXP.
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