Editors Note: This is by no means 'polished' and it probably will not get to that because of lack of time.
My first experience with an Apple was the IIe and IIc. And then later the 128k Mac and Fat Mac (512k) when I was in 1st and 2nd grade. My experience was mainly due to the fact that my dad. I have never asked him why he chose to use a Mac over a PC (because the school had Apple II's), but I assume it had something to do with photography, as I have memories of going to football games when I was a kid and dad shooting the game (on 16 mm black & white film).
I never really had an urge to use a PC when I was a kid, or at any point of my childhood. I came to know PC's as having ugly graphics and cryptic commands you had to type in. I remember in high school swearing up and down why I had to load mouse drivers before I loaded 3D Studio (before the Max). And more times then not I forgot to type in those stupid commands to load the mouse.
I lived with my mom and visited my dad on the weekends, and my mom would not get me an Apple II (of any flavor). My mom was a teacher, and I was your standard teacher's kid, so I had plenty of access to Apple computers at school. I can remember in 1st and 2nd grade playing Sticky Bears, Q*bert, some math game I cannot remember the name of, Oregon Trail, etc, and text based RPG adventure games on the Apple II.
The next Apple computer I remember using, which was an entirely new experience because of a different operating system, was the Apple IIgs. After all I had learned a little about programming Apple Basic for the Apple II and now there is this entirely new thing with a full GUI, a Desktop. I had seen the Amega by this time and the Apple IIgs was just a prettier Amega desktop. I remember the Amega having plenty more games (awesome games) but I liked the applications and the general user interface of the IIgs better.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
When I first saw a Macintosh 20 years ago, I immediately wanted one. You could immediately start using it without having to know some secret code.
My first was a Mac Plus with a 20mb hardrive and Imagewriter II, and it only cost $5,000. With the addition of a 1200 baud modem and some BBS numbers, I was online.