Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died yesterday, October 5, 2011.
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Jobs, 1993
My computer “career” started with an Apple Macintosh back in 1986. I played countless games on it, and back at my parents’ – it still works. I continued through my childhood using Apple – the majority of the other children in my class used Windows, and there was a bit of taunting going on, from both sides. Still, through the beige-boxy 90s, the Macintosh stood solid in our home. We’d upgraded gradually, but it was still beige and boxy.
I remember the iMac. No floppy disk space. I went to school, and (quite possibly) rather brattily proclaimed that the floppy disk was old and outdated.
From the moment I could buy my own computers, and not just inherit my dad’s beat-up Powerbooks (which still worked), I also went for Apple. Not because of any fancy commercials they might have thrown at me – in Norway you didn’t get much in the way of Apple marketing at that point – but because they worked, they gave me a computer that I didn’t have to spend an insane amount of time installing stuff on, or repairing.
An old friend of mine, incidentally also someone who’d grown up using Apple, complained when the iPod craze hit. Suddenly Apple was the cool thing – and he wasn’t too crazy about that. For me, it is just a validation of the things I’ve been saying through my upbringing. 🙂
I have met amazing people through the computer (some just through the computer, and some have transcended that, to real life). I have discovered amazing things, and played some pretty fantastic games. I have had a wonderful time so far.
(I could possibly also have done this on alternative computers, but the threshold for continuing with Apple after moving from home was lower than getting an unfamiliar brand. I am a sucker for things I know work.)
As I am writing this on a MacBook, my old iBook is in my closet still working (for playing the original Colonization, or Civilization II), and I would have to admit to being a computer addict.
Thank you, Steve Jobs, for creating something wonderful.
