It was 25 years ago today that Apple released the Macintosh computer. Hard to believe it's been that long. I wasn't using one back then, but I was aware of it. My Industrial Arts teacher in Junior High was also the computer teacher, and we would use Apple II's for progamming in basic, and running educational software. He had the first Mac I ever saw, somewhere around 1987.

I was really into the Apple II computers when I was in elementary school. My uncle likes to talk about the first time he ever saw a computer was when I brought it to my grandparent's house at Christmas. My old Apple IIc was great, but it wasn't user-friendly by any means. There was no mouse, just the keyboard.

I didn't do as much with computers from around 5th grade through 10th grade. I had friends who had IBM based PC's, but those just didn't appeal to me. They were clunky and difficult to learn/use. In 11th grade I signed up for the journalism class at Bradshaw High School. That class was a wastershed moment for me. Prior to that point I figured I would go to law school and be an attorney like my dad (humorous considering that I hate to argue.)

I joined up on the yearbook staff and we were probably one of the early adopters of Desktop Publishing for high school yearbooks. We would still draw layouts by hand, but we would produce headlines, artwork, etc. on our Macs, an SE, SE/30 and eventually a IIsi. That was my first exposure to the Mac, and after rising quickly through the ranks, I was taking the Macs home for the weekend and soaking in everything I could about them. From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to work in communications.

It's taken 25 years, but we are living in the golden age of Macintosh now. Market share continues to grow. I used to hear from people that they wouldn't buy a Mac because Apple was going to be out of business in a year back in the 90's. Truth is, they came close. When Apple purchased Steve Job's NeXT Computers in the 90's. They were a bad quarter away from bankruptcy.

Jobs was reckless and out of control during his original tenure at Apple. He needed to fail in order to learn how to succeed. And now with the Mac at 25 years old, it's got a lot of momentum. The President of the United States is a Mac user. I used to have only a few friends who were Mac users, and I would evangelize it to them over and over, but make no headway. And now I only have a few friends who are PC users. It's been an interesting 25 years. Can't wait to see what the Mac is like 25 years from now.

There are some more great videos over at Computerworld: Happy 25th birthday to Macintosh.