Yesterday, the Macintosh computer turned 40 years old.

I don’t want to say by how much, but that makes me feel old, because I’m older than the Mac. My first real experience with modern computing was on an Apple IIe running LOGO, but I’ve fallen in love with the Mac.

The first Mac was released on January 24th, 1984 and cost $2,495. Even though Macs are pricier than their PC cousins, it’s remarkable just how much value you gain from Mac computers. I’ve owned several Macs that have either cost the same or less than original sticker price.

Macs have always been powerhouses in one way or another and the first Mac was powered by a Motorola 68000 processor with 128k of RAM. It had a 9-inch black and white screen and sported a…3.5″ floppy disk drive. El Jefe, who waxes romantically about his TRS “Trash” 80, was writing GW–BASIC on a machine with a cartridge slot and needed a TV for a picture.

Powerful Enough to Design Super Computers

I just bought a Mac to help me design the next Cray.

Seymour Cray

Through out the years, Mac computers were used by innovators and creators to invent many of the world’s greatest gadgets and movies.

Seymour Cray famously used a Mac to design one of Cray’s supercomputers. Macs were, and are still, frequently used to animate and render your favorite movies. PowerMac Quadras famously predicted the weather, and now many-a-data-scientist runs tensor models on MacBook Pros.

Always Controversial

The original Macintosh was the first computer to standardize the floppy drive while the PowerMac G4 was the first to ditch the unreliable disk format. Apple would pursue removing more and more peripherals from the Mac. After the departure of the floppy drive, CD and DVD drives would disappear, and the latest MacBook Pro this article is being written on only has USB-C ports, and HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Once AirPlay is embedded in everything the HDMI port will disappear too.

Macs also pushed the boundaries of design. The first iMacs looked like 60s era TVs. PowerMacs adopted colorful bodies like high end workstations.

Apple released a Mac Pro desktop that would fit in perfect on Darth Vader’s desk.

And the current line up of aluminum MacBooks are the sexiest laptops around.

In a world where more and more computing moves to the cloud and AI, computing as we know it today is often questioned. We know one thing for sure. Creators and inventors who are serious with their craft will continue making things on their Macs.

-MJ