My first Mac was and still is, an iMac G3/600 Graphite edition. Got it at a thrift store last year for $29.99 that had a suffering hard drive (I/O, I/O, it's off to click we go), so I replaced the HDD with a temporary 30GB HDD (not enough space for iMovie projects), then to a 200GB (set the HDD limit to 128GB), SuperDrive upgrade since the CD-RW died mysteriously (mainly because it looked like it got dropped years ago), and 768MB SD-RAM installed, plus, it also has the ATI Rage 128 Ultra integrated GPU. It has Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 (up-to-date), iLife 03, except iDVD doesn't like the SuperDrive upgrade I did, even though it's an Apple drive, and Lubuntu 16.04.3 LTS as well. I also have the matching keyboard, and I'm using a scrolling wheel optical mouse since the Apple mice only have 1 button, and I'm too lazy to hit the Ctrl key and left-clicking (Apple's way of the right-click).

Second one is an iMac G4/800 (paid $9.99 at a thrift store) with 512MB SD-RAM, 60GB HDD, 2x SuperDrive, 15" Display, nVidia GeForce2 MX, flat panel (lampshade), AirPort 802.11b (took it out due to the card not supporting WPA2-AES), which is upgraded to the Edimax EW-7811Un Nano USB Wireless N, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11, iLife 03 (iDVD works), and using the same keyboard and mouse I use on my iMac G3/600 (planning on getting a KVM USB switch box to switch between the G3 and G4 iMacs).

My first Mac was a (Bondi Blue) iBook G3 Clamshell, it was a major PITA especially when it came to expandability, those things were NOT meant to be serviced by the user (i.e. the HDD, CD drive, screen, etc are very difficult to replace without breaking something), good riddance.

My second and third ones are PowerMac G4s, one is a 350MHz Graphite Sawtooth, and the other one is a 933MHz Quicksilver. I still have the Sawtooth, but I parted out the Quicksilver because it was suffering from capacitor failure and it was taking up too much space.

The fourth one was a 2006 Mac Mini with a 1.5 GHz Core Solo. I sold that one a year ago because I no longer had a use for it, it was practically obsolete by then because nowadays everything requires OS X 10.9+ and the maximum OS I could put on that was OS X 10.6 and maybe 10.7 with a C2D CPU upgrade. Not really worth the effort anymore.

My fifth one is a 2005 Mac Mini G4 (1.42 GHz) which I still have as an OS X 10.4.11 machine.

Sixth one is a 2015 Mac Mini with a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5. It's actually my primary desktop because like most people I can't stand Windows 10 (will not go into anymore detail there). Unfortunately, it suffered from hard drive failure so it's currently getting its hard drive replaced (I should've gotten an SSHD and replace it myself instead of sending it into the Apple Repair Center).

I have plenty of other Macintoshes in my collection (a Powerbook G3, an iMac G3/400, an eMac, and a Performa 6200CD), but I think I've already went into enough detail here, so I'll save their stories for another time.

Years ago I was given a MAC LC, but had no interest in Apple computers at that time and passed it to someone else.
Later I got myself a G4 AGP and a G5 both still running strong and have OS X 10.4 Tiger intalled.
The G5 sufffered from some transport damage, so I still need to find another case.

I've had quite a few over the years....

2004 - Apple Macintosh 7100/80, this was my only working Mac at the time. Had 2 older SE models but they both were caked in mud though one miraculously powered on and gave me the Sad Mac!
I bought it at the Salvation Army thrift in Auburn Alabama in 2003, the SCSI HDD had all of it's pins mashed beyond repair. Later I managed to get an 800MB SCSI Drive out of another Macintosh and used that in it for quite awhile, running Mac OS 8.1. Used to play Diablo and Sim City 2000 a lot on it. Here's another picture of it years later in my old Everett apartment...

1997 Apple Macintosh 5400/75 LC - One of those "Road Apples" with the castrated serial access. I got this from a co-worker at the restaraunt I was working at at the time. Eventually the screen died, and I had to give it up. SPECS - PPC 605 @ 75 MHz, 800MB IDE HDD, 48MB of RAM, Mac OS 8.1.

1996 Apple Macintosh 6100/60 - Given to me by one of the Managers at work, it was consolidated into the more powerful 7100/80, and the mixture of this and the 7100 became my main Mac computer for many years. Eventually, those bits of the 7100 and others were moved to my 6400/180 machine.

2007 - 1996 Macintosh 6400 180. I started using this as my main "Diablo" online gaming box at the time to try and get more familiar with Macintosh. I've since quit the Macintosh game, this system went to a VCF forum member whom was interested in it in 2009 when I started downsizing.

1993 Apple Macintosh 740C - Bought this at the south Everett Goodwill for $35 in late 2007 because I wanted to fool around with a portable Macintosh for awhile. Specs - Motorola 68LC040 @66 MHz, 12MB of RAM, 500 MB SCSI HDD, 9.5" Color LCD, No Floppy, External HID SCSI Connection, dual DOA Batteries, and Power Supply. Runs Mac OS 7.7.5.

1988 Macintosh SE FDHD - Bought this for $5 at Value Village in late 2006 (at the same time I bought the IBM PS/2 Model 56 SL/2). This is my oldest Macintosh (that works), I also have an SE/30 that needs a hard drive and hard drive cradle. This is my main "bar computer". Specs - 68000 CPU running at 8 MHz, 4MB of RAM, 40MB HDD, runs Mac OS 6, and has a lot of Vintage Mac software on it. I still have this one, my wife wants me to keep it, she find's it "cute". Now I'm huntingg for a LAN card for it if I can get one.

Centris 610, Apple Trinitron Colour CRT, LC-040, 24MB ram, 80MB HDD, external CD-ROM Drive in 96'ish I think (I bought it 2nd hand from the Apple Dealer I worked for at the time).

Great machine and was still going strong in 99 when I sold it for close to what I paid for it.

http://lowendmac.com/1993/centris-610/

The only new Mac I ever bought was iBook back in -05. It was shit slow even back then. After that, I've got these for a few coins. Never used any of them since.

Apple Macintosh Classic
Apple PowerBook 160
Apple iMac G4
Apple PowerMac G4

I've never had a new Mac; in the UK they were ridiculously expensive, educational discounts weren't high enough, so pre OS X they were only ever found in publishing.

With the arrival of the Bondi Blue iMac they were accessible to the general public, but ergonomics were pathetic. I laughed (and still laugh) at the things.

Tried some eMacs off ebay but they had faults, then my first PowerMac was the Digital Audio 733. It's since been followed by a PowerMac G5 DP 2.3, PowerMac 4400/200, and a Mac Mini G4 1.5GHz.

The only thing I'm really missing is a Mac that supports really early games/Mac OS versions, and 16/2 colour support.

I'm not surprised Windows handily beat the Mac, the operating system sucked severely, and only really started to improve about four releases in to OS X. Granted, there were some very impressive graphics and multimedia capabilities, but it might have helped if multi tasking arrived earlier.

You don't buy a Mac because they're good or cheap, but as a social statement: "yes, I work with computers, but I'm not one of those guys."

Errius wrote:

You don't buy a Mac because they're good or cheap, but as a social statement: "yes, I work with computers, but I'm not one of those guys."

Whatever, I bought my Centris 610 to replace my Amiga 500, Windows 95 didnt impress me at all - at the time I also had a 386 which I ran OS/2 on (great OS) and then NT 4.0. after '99 I went Windows exclusively but always the Pro versions.

Then in 2013 I bought my second ever Mac (i7 Mini) after getting sick of the effort required to maintain our fleet of PC's and it's been great running a Unix OS, We liked it so much later that year I bought my wife a 2013 rMBP. While it was expensive, it's been sensational and the only support required is showing her how to use various apps.

We still have both machines 5 years later and they still run perfectly with no need to replace them - I did upgrade the mini with an SSD but that's it. I also run 2 linux machines (a Plex Server and also a RasPi as my Electronics workshop machine) and I run a HP Server with Windows Server 2008 R2 (I really must upgrade to 2016 Essentials).

Anyhoo, my point is ppl buy Mac's because they are excellent, easy to use computers with long lifespans and low maintenance requirements - that's always been true for most users, even back in the 68k era.

Which HP server do you run? (I'm typing this on a HP server running W2K8R2)

Errius wrote:

Which HP server do you run? (I'm typing this on a HP server running W2K8R2)

Good old original HP MicroServer N36L with a P410 512MB BBWC Raid-controller & 12TB Disk + 120GB SSD for the OS and the custom AHCI FW.

I used to have a bunch of Xeon powered rack mount models too, but the Wife wouldn't let me have them in the house (too loud). 🤣

I'm using a dual Xeon ML350 G4p which was a file server for several years, but is now serving as a desktop. And yes noise is the biggest problem with it.

Errius wrote:

I'm using a dual Xeon ML350 G4p which was a file server for several years, but is now serving as a desktop. And yes noise is the biggest problem with it.

Nice, I used to have the 1RU DL360 Dual Xeon (I forget with Gen it was) and the very large (6RU), very loud DL740 Quad Xeon!!! 🤣

I've had a few others along the way too as I used to manage a Tier3 spec Data Centre and Customers used to give me their old kit after they'd built new system in my DC. 😎

EDIT: actually just recalled that the DL740 was an 8-way Xeon config and boy was it LOUD! 🤣

I got rid of most of my (nonfunctional) 68k Mac stuff in a clearout recently. The Macs I've got left are probably less interesting but more immediately useful, including the new project hotness that I've been working on. Those are:

- Gigabit G4 tower with a PowerLogix dual 1.7GHz upgrade board running Leopard (+ Tiger + OS9 + Linux when I get some more time to work on it)
- Dual G5/2.0 tower (AGP/PCI-X) tower running Leopard, in my office doing actual work stuff I get paid for
- G4 Cube 450MHz running OS9 (needs some repairs, build thread coming eventually)
- White Mac Minis: 2 x 2009 2.26GHz C2D running Mavericks & Snow Leopard, 1 x 2006 1.66GHz Core Duo running FreeDOS. One of the 2009s is controlling the main audio/MIDI interface in my music studio, the other is acting as a wi-fi bridge for the G4 😜
- 1st gen AppleTV ("Mac Nano") running Linux - this is the cool one with a 1GHz PIII, 256MB RAM, onboard HDD and an unlocked bootloader. The later AppleTVs use ARM chips and are boring.
- 2012 MacBook Pro that I'm typing this on (13", i5)
...and a SWEET Apple //e that I haven't posted about yet (yes, I know it's not a Mac. You don't need to pedantically point that out.)

Notable ones I got rid of included an SE/30 (motherboard beyond repair, didn't boot), LC630 DOS compatible (didn't boot), PowerMac 6100AV (didn't boot), PowerMac 7200 (didn't boot, missing too many parts), 2.3GHz dual-core G5 (PSU went), and a perfect indigo iMac G3 that I kinda wish I'd kept. I'd still like to get my hands on a working SE/30 or LC-III or something like that, even though I'm not a big fan of System 7. Unfortunately every 68k machine I've had so far has been beyond my ability to fix.