The Macintosh

Today the Macintosh computer is 25 years old. The Macintosh 128K was released on January 24, 1984. This machine had no hard drive and only 128 kilobytes of RAM (currently available computers typically have 2 gigabytes of RAM, or roughly 16,000 times as much as the original Macintosh 128K). It was the first computer available to consumers that had a mouse and a graphical user interface. While much has changed in the Mac’s user interface of the past 25 years, most of the original concepts (mouse pointer, icons, windows, menus, buttons) are still used.

I actually owned a Macintosh 128K, though not when it was released in 1984, but rather when I found one in a pawn shop in rural Virginia in 1999. I had a day off my job at ASP when I was exploring the area. I browsed around this pawn shop when I was shocked to find four “classic” style (the original all-in-one design) Macintosh computers. I had to have them. Even if they didn’t work, I always wanted to have a fish tank. The price tags said $20 each. I examined the machines and found that two of them had been completely gutted and had no hope of ever working, but the cases were still intact. The other two seemed to have all the parts, but they were so old the chances of them working were pretty slim. I explained to the shop worker that they probably didn’t work, but I would still pay $20 for all four of them. We had a deal.

The two that didn’t work were a Macintosh SE and a Macintosh SE/30. I was delighted to learn the two that had all the parts were a Macintosh 128K (the first ever Macintosh) and a Macintosh 512K (the second ever Macintosh). Unfortunately, the 128K didn’t work. However, the 512K did work. These machines don’t run without a system floppy disk, which didn’t come with the pawn shop computers and which I clearly didn’t have. So I found one for sale on the internet for a few bucks and once it arrived I had a working 1984 era machine.

Now, this machine isn’t terribly useful for anything other than nostalgia, but it still works to this day. It still surprises me how fast these old machines boot up. Here’s a video where the machine can go from off to fully booted in 16 seconds.

I have owned dozens of computers over the years, all but two (I think) have been Macs:

Image	Model	Introduced	Acquired	Status
	Performa 6200	1995	1995	recycled
	PowerBook 5300 CS	1995	1996	in my closet
	iMac	1998	1998	sold to relatives
	Macintosh 128K	1984	1999	recycled
	Macintosh 512K	1984	1999	in my office
	Macintosh SE	1987	1999	recycled
	Macintosh SE/30	1989	1999	recycled
	9 x Macintosh IIcx	1989	1999	9 x recycled
	Macintosh IIci	1989	1999	in my storage room
	PowerBook G3 (work)	2000	2000	returned to work
	iBook SE (Melissa)	2000	2001	gave to relatives
	PowerMac G4	2000	2001	in my office
	PowerBook G4 (work)	2002	2003	returned to work
	PowerBook 12″ (Melissa)	2003	2003	in my office
	PowerMac G5	2004	2004	gave to parents
	Mac mini	2005	2005	gave to in-laws
	MacBook Pro (work)	2006	2006	returned to work
	MacBook (Melissa)	2007	2007	Melissa’s primary computer, in Melissa’s office
	MacBook Pro (work)	2007	2007	my primary laptop, in my office
	Mac Pro	2008	2008	my primary desktop, in my office
	PowerBook Duo 250	1993	2008	in my office