I was a pretty-well established computer geek by the time the Macintosh computer debuted 30 years ago. It wasn’t until April of that year (1984) that I actually got my hands on a Mac.

The entry model Macintosh retailed for just under $2,500. That price didn’t include the printer or the external floppy drive, which were necessities. Never mind buying software. As full-time student working part-time as a cook, I couldn’t afford a Mac. I wanted one, but who didn’t?

In April of 1984, I was invited to my first nerd party. My friend Jerry wanted to show off his new Macintosh. As it happened, several other people brought their Macs to the party. (I remember more Macintoshes than beer, which is typical of a 1980s nerd party.) I got to play on my first Macintosh, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Dan Gookin (left) and Joe Holt play on the first generation Macintosh computers.

In 1989 I finally could justify the purchase of my own Macintosh. It was a Macintosh SE/30 system with a Laserwriter printer, an external full-page Radius monitor (monochrome), plus an external hard drive. I used that system to create artwork for my books. I wrote one chapter of DOS For Dummies on the Mac as a lark.

I replaced the SE/30 in 1991 with a NeXT slab. At the time, Macs were getting boring. Steve Jobs had been fired and Apple lost its touch. The NeXT computer was pretty cool, but very expensive. I think I paid close to $10,000 for it, which is the most I’ve ever spent on a computer. For that reason, I still have the thing. It’s out in my garage, shown in Figure 2. Yes, it still works.

Figure 1. My NeXT Slab, while not a Macintosh, was inspired by Steve Jobs.

The NeXT slab ran Illustrator, so I used it for many of my early For Dummies books’ illustrations.

In 1998, I purchased a Macintosh Quadra 610. I used it for my one and only Macintosh title, Mac Word 98 For Dummies. Lamentably, after that book was done, the Quadra sat unused in my office’s back room. I still have it, and it works, but it languishes out in the boneyard, shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. The Mac Quadra was yet another in a line of hum-drum Macs before the iMac appeared.

When the original iMac appeared, I bought several of them. They were all over the house: I had one, my wife did, my oldest son did, and the kids had one in their room for playing games. It was a great system.

In 2002 I purchased a Mac Pro G5 with a “huge” 21-inch LCD monitor. That system was replaced by a Power PC Mac Pro in 2005, which lasted until 2010, which I bought my current Macintosh, a 27-inch iMac, shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. My current Macintosh, a 27-inch i7 iMac.

That’s my Macintosh experience. Happy Birthday, Mac!