My first computer experience was in the early 80's with a Texas instruments machine my father bought. When I got into first grade my next computer to get my hands on was a Radio Shack Tandy design in Math class. They both shared simple graphical lines and text interfaces. Then my computer experience changed with the Macintosh as I progressed through school. I made it almost all the way through without touching a PC were it not for a high school computer class that was spent partially on the PC but mostly on a Performa. I went through all of my school years writing papers by hand, on a word processor, or on an Apple. Not one word was typed on a PC and printed out to be turned in.
Then came college. Apple had brought back the clones. Dell was emerging here in Austin. PowerComputing was taking the lead in performance Mac computing up IH35 a few miles North of town. I was torn. Should I purchase a PowerComputing box, or a Dell? The Dell was a good deal cheaper, but the PowerComputing box hummed. Then Steve Jobs made the decision for me. Brought back in as the temporary head of the company from Pixar he quickly made it clear he was there to stay.
His first steps? To make sure that BEOS was not the basis for the next Mac OS, and that instead his NextOS was chosen. Then kill the clones was his next cry. Goodbye Motorola clones, goodbye Umax clones, goodbye Power Computing. Hello Dell, at least for a couple of years.
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Jun 24, 2003, 05:00 PM
