When did you start using a Mac? Just wanted to share my story and how Steve Jobs and Apple changed my life.

I bought my first Apple laptop, the 12” Powerbook, in 2002 for $2000. It forever changed my life. Simple, intuitive, and extremely powerful.

Before that I had only ever owned PC’s, my first one a 286SX my parents bought in 1987. Before that I had played on 8088’s, playing Frogger and learning a little BASIC.

In the 90’s my uncle John would drop off computer parts at my house and I built many computers, even entering a 386SX in the 4H county fair when I was 10. I won every award you could win by default, not many other 10 year olds were entering computers in the 4H. Not sure if they ever have since in Hillsdale Michigan.

I remember my first experience with an Apple. There was room full of Apple IIe’s at Kimball Camp in Reading Michigan. I remember not being impressed, as they were pretty far behind what I was using at the time (486 running Windows 3.1).

Then in the mid 90’s I started using Mac’s running OS 7 or 8 at Spring Arbor college where my mom went to finish her bachelors. I was impressed even then by the interface, it was just easier to use. But I continued to use PC’s for years, becoming a PC technician, and fixing computers and training people how to use them thru high school and into college.

Then during my junior year of college (2002) I finally drank the cool aid and switched to a Mac. I had just purchased a brand new HP and was hanging out with my friend Christian (@mintchaos), who had been a Mac user for life, and noticed how much faster and easier to use his white iBook was. I played with it a bit and the next day returned the HP and bought myself a Mac.

My first Apple computer was the 12” PowerBook. It was awesome. OS X, the PowerBook hardware, and the Apple culture became part of who I was.

I had spent years spending the majority of my time keeping my computers running, keeping my friends, family, and clients computers running. Suddenly I found out there was a computer that you could just use to get stuff done, real stuff, like building websites, programming, graphic design, building cool stuff out of photos and video, and the barrier to entry was only a slightly premium price. The learning curve was extremely low, the interface crazy intuitive, and it never crashed!

When clients asked what kind of computer I used I was always excited to tell them about Apple. I would usually say something like, “I fix computers all day everyday, I use an Apple at home because it just works.”

Fast forward nine years and I am absolutely convinced that Steve Jobs and what he built at Apple were and are the single most important influences on my technological life and carrier.

I am now a software developer, using my Mac and iPhone everyday for fun, work, communication, and so much more. I can’t imagine I would have ever accomplished so much in the last nine years if it weren’t for Apple.

I just finished reading iWoz and I’m really looking forward to reading Job’s biography.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Steve. My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.