Then:

Macintosh 128k, 1984

And Now:

iMac Intel, 2009

I remembered that when I first started working with Motorola Malaysia, Petaling Jaya in 1999, we used to have a few of these compact Macintosh computers (most probably Classic II, cant’ really recall the exact model) around for us to assemble the burn-in program for Motorola’s microcontrollers. BBEdit was the editor of choice for coding. It was just a short while, though, that soon after all the Macintosh’s were replaced by IBM compatible PCs, and my brief encounter with the Mac ended.

Fast forward to September 2007. My home PC (AMD Athlon based) has been showing signs of aging, and the constant CPU over heating was making the performance even worse to the point of unbearably slow. I have been reading up about the iMac Intel a couple of months before that, and really like the all-in-one sleek design and the upcoming (and supposedly more advanced) OSX 10.5 Panther new features even though I have never used any OSX before. The only concern is the price – it is at least double compared to similar spec of Intel/AMD based PCs with the same CPU speed, RAM and HD sizes. But on the other hand, I so want to split with Microsoft Windows after years of frustration that I don’t even want to mention the details here – all the Windows users would know.

So I was walking over to Ikano Power Center at Mutiara Damansara after my gym session and saw the of the Apple reseller IT Planet. I walked in, played with the iMac a little bit – I literally didn’t know how to use the OSX interface by then, I just moved the mouse over the dock and acted as if I know something. The sales girl walked over. I asked her whether I will get a free upgrade to Panther (expected to be out soon) – the answer is No. I asked her whether there is any discount on the iMac, and the answer is No again. She assured me though that the learning curve for OSX is not steep, and I will be much happier with an iMac.

I said Thank You, walked out of the shop while thinking whether I should just go buy another PC and be stuck with Windows, or go back in and get the iMac but have to pay the price premium. I probably thought about it for 5 minutes or so, and then I turned back in, took out my credit card, and in no time I was RM5699 more in debt, but a 20″ 2.4GHz Code II Duo iMac finds its way back to my home.

And the rest, as they say, is history. I am a super happy convert! And let’s hope for another 25 years!

p/s: Check out TUAW’s photo gallery of the historical Macintoshs, here: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/01/24/25-years-of-macintosh-in-photos