What's Up Mac?

What's Up Mac?

By Bill Rose

So why did I start this blog?

A little history is in order. Almost twenty years ago I bought my first Macintosh computer. It was a Classic II. It was used but still in great working order and I loved that little feller. Up till then I had been using a borrowed Mac Plus from a friend trying to convert me from Windows. His plan worked!! Maybe it worked a little too well because 61 Macs later along with almost 40 other Apple products from the Newton to an iPad I'm still nowhere near done yet. ; )

This friend and I saw a notice from our local Gainesville, Florida Macintosh Users Group MacPeople about their next meeting. We attended and I have been going to those monthly meetings since 1992. The more involved I got with the group the more I wanted to give back because in those days I needed a lot of help and that Macintosh community was only too happy to give it. Part of the Apple ethos is "The Macintosh Way" and the cornerstone of that belief system is coincidentally the catch phrase for the MacPeople Users Group of Gainesville, Florida.

"Users Helping Users".

I believe in that slogan and from my belief "What's Up Mac?" was born first as a monthly column in our User Group newsletter and then on our website. "What's Up Mac?" (heretofore known as WUM) lasted almost 15 years. I used this forum to rally the troops when Apple was floundering and everybody thought they would go out of business. I trumpeted new products. I ranted about the things that bothered me. I used WUM as a bully pulpit to spread the word and to defend the faith because way back when it was "us against them" much like it is now.

Obviously I love Apple and Macs so writing about them is a labor of love though at times I have been less than complimentary about the way Apple has done some things in the past. I use Apple products simply because they work. I use Apple products because they not just work but they look great too and as a designer I do think form and function can peacefully co-exist. I have used all kinds of computers from IBM/Wang/Sperry mainframes to workstations from Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems yet I settled on the Mac platform because it made sense. Apple is the only company out there making personal computers that creates the hardware, Operating System and applications all under one roof. The result is a seamless integration of the computing experience that makes owning a Mac unique.

Speaking for myself Macs changed my life. I found a passion and my voice on a Mac. A Mac "gets" me and I get it.

It's been almost 5 years since my last WUM and now I find I have a lot of things to say and blogging WUM seems like a natural progression. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you comment on my posts. I hope you either own a Mac or are getting a Mac. Otherwise it gets ugly if you are a flamer. ; )