It's amazing to think that such an icon has been around for so long now. It's the computer that started all the buzz. I think we all know what I'm trying to say. When you're so bonded to a computer, there's a virtual emotional attachment to it. You wake up early to use them. You stay up late just to use them. People with PCs just think we're silly, but in a community of app developers, you probably all know what I mean. What Macs have you had? As far as I'm aware, my father had the original Macintosh (or a model from around then). One thing you've got to learn about me is that our family is Apple only - I wasn't popular when I had an Android phone (but it was crap anyway)! For me, I personally haven't had any macs, but I'm the main user for the so called 'Family-Mac'. But I have been using four computer for my main work: - iBook G4 (2004) - iMac G5 (2006) - iMac 27" (2010) - iMac 27" (2011) Actually, the story behind the 2011 iMac is weird. I was using a 2010 before I went on holiday, and came back to use a new 2011 iMac. Odd. But someone had copied the files over, so I thought I was just using the same computer for about 3 months before I looked in 'About A Mac'. What had happened is that there was an issue with the graphics card while I was away, and Apple fixed it but it still wouldn't work, so it was replaced. Apple has got this rather delightful webpage, that has absorbed an hour of my own time! http://www.apple.com/30-years/ What's your Mac stories? Post them below.

Was reading article on this in the AM. 30 years!!! That's like 3 Thomas Boyd's. G3 that I bought in 1999, G4 that I bought a few years later, probably around 2003 I think. Ever since then I've used laptops though. Think my first one had 2mb video, most awesome.

I was 16 when the first Mac came out. My dad surprised us one day with the first model. We'd had an Apple ][+ up till then. That first Mac was 128k of awesome! I had that original Mac for ages, took it to college and then jumped ship for the Amiga (with a Video Toaster!) Commodore and Amiga died when Apple was doing poorly so I went to the PC world. When Apple went to Intel I came back with the first black MacBook and OS X. I have a (barely alive) old MaccBook Pro now and I'm trying to save pennies for a new one. I can't wait to see what's next! -William

@MacApple... only two versions of me! But yes, the fact remains that the Mac is twice as old as I am! I can confirm my dad had the original one, and had an amazing 128KB of RAM! He bought about 20 for the Publishing company he worked for back then. He also had one of the first PowerBooks in the early 1990s. He apparently says he used to plug it into the plane's telephone sockets to do his emailing while flying! Funny how times have moved on. I'm saving up for a one of my own... but I need more apps!

@Kozmoweb - I was an Atari man prior to Apple. Atari 400 Atari 800xl Atari 520ST Then they died. Sad face.

@MacApple - that's great! We even had a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I before the Apple ][+ but that was no fun. Back then full programs were PRINTED in magazines like Creative Computing and you'd have to re-type them by hand into your machine to use them. Lots of work to play a simple game of breakout! Oh, I even had a Mac emulator on my old Amiga 2000! It was called "A-Max" http://crossconnect.tripod.com/AMAXHIST.HTML I had to take the ROMs out of the 128k Mac and put them in a special board that connected to the Amiga's floppy drive port. I then had 2 computers in one! People simply didn't believe me when I told them that! -William

Hey, I'm a windows man.... started this Apple stuff with iphone 3. Now a days I have a iMac mid 2010. I know how to get a windows to have a good performance, but for the best of me, I'm unable to get this mac to perform as it should. It's running Maverick, it has 16GB of ram, and it takes like 5 minutes from the moment i press run on xcode to simulate an app.... and spotlight is just always indexing (that can't help)..... in windows, crtl+alt+del tas manager and just stop everything and figure out whats slowing down.... on mac... I have no idea... but hey I love my mac... but I sell windows... :) Cheers guys.

Hey @MacRod, Not sure how to diagnose your problem, but something strange must be going on. Check the "Activity Monitor" in your Utilities folder in Applications. I use a MacBook Pro from 2007 with 3GB Ram, Mavericks and XCode 5. It's slow but I can still compile and simulate Buzztouch apps in under 5 min. Your machine should be worlds ahead of that. -William

@MadRod... Weird, I must say! My iMac has got much less RAM (it's running on 8GB), and I did have to sacrifice an i7 for the 27 inches, but when I run my apps on Xcode, it runs within ten seconds. However I do agree that Mavericks was a downgrade. Apple were so focused on being power-efficient that they forgot that the iMac was NOT battery operated.

Activity monitor says that a Mr.... kernel_taks is eating up most of my resources....

My first computer that *I* bought was a commodore amiga. It lasted through the weekend, when I took it back and got an Apple ||e. That lasted until I got my first Mac, a Mac SE. The model I bought had two built in floppies, and I purchased an aftermarket internal 40MB Hard Drive. I took a Job in Japan, and with the increased income decided to purchase a Mac IIfx, with all the trimmings. I ended up giving the SE to a friend who was so impressed, that they purchased a few shares of Apple stock. I wish I had done the same. You may have seen my name in a few of the "MacTutor" magazines… Or while browsing "the mousehole" BBS. I was a contributor there too; most of my development was using 'Think Pascal' rather than Apples MPW. After leaving Japan, I started focusing on businesses who used PC's, so I ended up getting PCs for the next few years, until Apple released the Intel Macintosh. I bought a MacBook, and a year later a MacBook Pro. I'm on my 4th MacBook pro, and as long as I can run windows using VMWare, I see no real need to return to a PC Based computer. I still haven't updated to Mavericks yet. Cheers! -- Smug