Nothing but Macintosh since 1985

Here's the current list. So far I have:

  1. iMac 3.6 GHz Intel Core i7 (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017) (purchased 2018)
  2. iPad (5th Generation) (purchased 2017)
  3. iPad mini 2 (2nd generation) (won 2013)
  4. MacBook Pro Retina 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 (Mid 2012) (purchased 2012)
  5. Mac mini 2.5GHz Core i5 (purchased 2011)
  6. iPad (purchased 2010)
  7. MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (purchased 2009)
  8. MacBook Pro 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo (purchased 2007)
  9. iBook G4 14" (purchased 2003)
  10. PowerBook G4 15"
  11. Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz (purchased 2005)
  12. Power Mac G4 Cube (450MHz G4) (purchased 2000)
  13. iMac (Slot Loading) (350MHz G3)
  14. iBook (Firewire) (366MHz G3) (purchased 2000)
  15. Powerbook (Firewire) (400MHz G3)
  16. Power Macintosh 7500/100 (400MHz G3 upgrade) (purchased 1996)
  17. Power Macintosh 8500/120 (120MHz 604)
  18. Macintosh Performa 6400/200 (200MHz 603e)
  19. Macintosh Performa 405 (16MHz 68030)
  20. Macintosh PowerBook 520 (25MHz 68LC040)
  21. Macintosh Centris 610 (20MHz 68LC040) (purchased 1993)
  22. Macintosh IIci (25MHz 68030)
  23. Macintosh PowerBook Duo 210 (25MHz 68030) + Duo Dock
  24. Macintosh SE/30 (16MHz 68030) (purchased 1989)
  25. Macintosh PowerBook 145B (25MHz 68030)
  26. Macintosh LC (16MHz 68020)
  27. Macintosh Plus (8MHz 68000)
  28. Macintosh 128k (8MHz 68000) (purchased 1985)

I also have a bunch of other interesting items:

  • Apple Watch
  • Newton MessagePad 2000 (upgraded to a 2100 and now with wireless networking!)
  • iPod (First generation 5GB)
  • Sun Ultra 1
  • Power Computing PowerCenter 132
  • Dell PC of some sort
  • Toshiba laptop of some sort
  • NeXT Cube

I also have crunched through the following iPhones:

  1. iPhone 7
  2. iPhone 6
  3. iPhone 5
  4. iPhone 4
  5. iPhone

But why all these Macs? Here is the original story written up in the 90's...

I first saw the Macintosh in a computer shop in 1984, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It made so much sense, the graphical interface, the idea that so much was built into the machine, the seamless way it operated.

So in 1985 I bought one. I got a 128k Macintosh even though the 512's were out. This has been a pattern that has persisted to this day. I got an SE/30 in 1990 just before they were discontinued and the Centris 610 pictured below that I bought in 1993 was only on the market for about 9 months. Of course, they're all like that now.

a real live Centris 610

After that, I got a Mac 7500/100. This was back in 1996, and at the time, it was a pretty hot machine. The thing that makes this old girl truly amazing is its upgradability. You can replace the CPU simply by removing the daughter card containing it and substituting a new one. The current Jobsian machines lack this basic feature included in the 7500.

It was supplied originally with a first generation PowerPC 601 chip of only 100Mhz. I picked up a 604/120 card a few months later for $99, and I was amazed at the improvement--at the time. I also decided to pump it up with 160MB of RAM.

Then I got a Newer Technology (R.I.P.) 400Mhz G3 card. The 400Mhz card allows the bus to run at its (don't laugh!) full 50Mhz speed. Updated with an ATI Rage Orion video card, the box is nearly as fast as a new G3. And, of course, my 33.6 modem (which never seemed to connect any faster than 31.2) was replaced with a new Global Village TelePort 56K modem, which routinely connects at well above 49K. The machine is running Mac OS 9.

Venerable 7500/G3/400

The latest addition to my Macintosh family is the new G4 Cube. Along with the 17" Studio Monitor, it'll soon take over as the main machine. Sometime I'll take my own pictures of it.

Macintosh G4 Cube

Now I've got a Power Macintosh G5 Dual 1.8GHz. This is the fastest computer I've ever owned. The Cube just couldn't do the video editing I wanted to do, and it was time for my 4 year computer replacement. It has 1.25GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive and Airport Extreme.

Iwas connected to the internet via the 56K modem in an AirPort, which besides providing wireless communications to the Cube and my wife's iBook, is also serving as a bridge to the wired Ethernet system I'm setting up. A Farallon iPrint adapter allows me to add my Local talk printer and any other LocalTalk devices I may want to add.

I finally got DSL through DirecTV DSL. It's pretty good for the price, especially considering you get a fixed IP.

Then DirecTV DSL went out of business, so I moved to Sonic.net. They are great, and I have 6M/608k service. It's fast and the customer support is great. I'm even hosting my website there now.

Sonic started offering basically wholesale AT&T U-Verse in my neighborhood, so I have that and am getting 22M/1.9M.

On March 24th 2001, you'll be able to buy Mac OS X, an operating system based on BSD Unix. I've tried the beta, and I've never seen a better Unix shell.

I read these fine Mac web pages:

More propaganda.

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This page created and modified hourly by Bob R. Kenyon ©2005