Switcher
Saturday, March 19th, 2005
I was a very early Mac user, having gotten my first one (an early production 128K model) from Steve Jobs and Mike Murray at the West Coast Computer Faire in late 1984. Once I had it I did what most people do who get something new, I looked for other early adopters. At the time I was living in Eugene, Oregon and the place for Apple users to hang out was The Computer Store. So, even though I’d not gotten my Mac from them I went down there and hung out.
Over the next few months as more people in Eugene started getting Macs I thought it might be a good idea to start a Macintosh users group as I’d had great luck with the PC users group I was a member of. So, I got a list of names from The Computer Store and called them all up and we came up with a time to meet at the store. The group grew and we moved from the store into a more public meeting room and in time it evolved into a full-fledged Macintosh users group.
A group of the most die hard of us (including me, of course) decided to attend the first Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Macworld and the companies that exhibited at it was a lot smaller and more personal in those days and as we were walking around the show floor we spotted various members of the original Mac team who had rock star status.
We spotted Andy Hertzfeld walking around the show floor with his worn out backpack on. I walked over, tapped him on the shoulder and said “hi Andy” and he said, “hi, are you guys serious Mac users? If so, I have something I want to show you.”
I said that we were and he walked over to the nearest booth which happened to be the MacBottom booth (early HD that sat under the Mac) and asked if he could use one of their machines. The guy in the booth hesitated but we all simultaneously told him that Andy was a member of the core Mac team and he calmed down.
Andy was talking a mile a minute while loading the contents of a single disk into the Mac. Then he was messing around with stuff we’d not seen before (setting up a switcher set) and then he said, “check this out.”
He hit the little arrow and the screen shifted from MacPaint to MacWrite and he hit it again and it came back to MacPaint.
He said “So, what do you think?”
We were speechless.
Unlike the others in my group, I had used Memory Shift on a PC and had a sense of what he was doing but still, the animation made it so much better.
After we told him we loved it he reached into his pack and gave each of us a disk with Switcher on it. It wasn’t shipping yet and he asked for our feedback.
I still have that disk and will always remember how wonderful it was to experience Andy’s generosity and enthusiasm for something he enjoyed making and sharing.
For more background on Switcher and Andy, see Switcher at Folklore.org.
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I’m currently designing a new website for Eugene Macintosh Users Group! :)
And they picked just the right person. Next time you have a meeting, drop my name and see if anyone remembers me there.
Also, drop the named “Dick Koch,” Steve Splonskowski.” I have a story to tell about them at some point as I dredge up these old memories (and I know Steve reads this weblog from time to time so I’d better get it right).
Wonderful story Richard. I still have many early Mac memories myself, we were among the very first to have to original Mac in The Netherlands. I also remember at that time a trip to Belgium where, in the French speaking part, it was advertized on billboards as “Enfin, une revolution capitaliste!” or something like that. And of course I also remember my awe when first seeing Switcher. However, I was only 15 when the Mac was introduced in 1984 and living far away from the Mac’s center of gravity so I never made it to a MacWorld show (actually have not made it to one at all so far). However, I did get involved with a Dutch Mac developer group, as their youngest member…
David, I think you ought to consider SF Macworld in January. I’ve not been back to that Macworld for quite some time and now that the east coast one is all messed up I think I might start showing up out there.
If I could afford it I would go. But as it looks now the trips this year to CSUN, WWDC, and CTG already eat up more than I have got. I wish I made the kind of products that could easily sell there and pay back the huge costs of getting a booth setup there. One day…
Yeah, one day! And I’ll be your booth groupie when you do.
Richard… I still fondly remember that same event, with you in SF. The jaw-dropping precursor of the Keynote cube side transition…Wow, was that so long ago…? As I recall, we later also wondered how late it was… enjoying all things Mac and San Francisco, late into the evening… and determined that “Who cares…we can always sleep back in Eugene!”
Still a Mac zealot, I am luckily working with Dmitri to change the EMUG group that you (thankfully!) started… way back then. Of course we still remember you… though we have not yet erected a statue in your honor. Hmmm. Best wishes.
Dick, wow, this is so cool to hear from you after all these years. If memory serves (and it does not serve well these days) after looking at the emug roster, you are the sole surviving early member. Am I right? Congratulations. Looks like the group is a lot smaller than it used to be but hey, the web has pretty much killed users groups off in many places. But, if I was there I’d still be a card carrying member!
Nice story, Richard. 1984…umm…must have been the last of my kindergarten days!
I have been thinking of switching to a mac for oh-so-long now – the cost (for a powerful powerbook) seems prohibitive, when weighed against the other nice things that can be had for the price. The reason I mention this is that everytime I read something like this article, I catch myself thinking that there must be something to all this that justifies the cost.
Oh boy, you are now giving me reason to write a post on what makes a Mac worth any offset in cost. Would you like to read such a post because if just one person says yes I’ll get started on it. I’ve been making this rationalization for years in front of thousands of people (mostly teachers who see me demo something and ask why it’s so hard to do same in their Windows machines).
It would be fun to do a “Daring Fireball” length (not quality, I’m not that good) article on this.
There are some big things that make the Mac different and a load of little details that if you overlook are meaningless but if you see add up to a vastly different user experience.
I know for years it was easy to get behind the “closed system” argument or the “Apple is for rich designers” argument or whatever the latest thing is, but honestly, one can make arguments about anything and twist things to support any pre-made conclusions (witness our nice adventure in Iraq).
Maybe the best way to handle it is one big initial post and many follow ups as I’m sure I won’t get it all in one. Give me a green flag and I’ll get started.
However, Carthik, you personally would very much enjoy Andy Hertzfeld’s book because it’s about all of the initial decisions that led to what we have now. Even though most of the characters in that book and story left Apple shortly after the first Mac shipped, their decisions are still evident in the design and philosophy. Atkinson and Hertzfeld are probably the most important characters in the entire history of the Macintosh although few today even know who they are or what they did. I’m totally in awe of them both to this day.
A search on google leads me to this informative page, which seeks to answer the question of whether PCs are indeed cheaper. After reading a bunch of the pages linked to from that page, I still wonder how a Mac user feels about this, and what are the benefits that can’t quite be put down in numbers. The numbers are confusing too, but begin to make sense when I realize that unlike in PCs, there is not much of a choice when it comes to PowerBooks (for example). There are only a couple of models and both seem to be high-end models, when compared to PCs.
A similar question, and its answer convinced me to switch to WordPress, in a way, and much as I am tempted to ask you, Richard, I wonder if it might not be too much of an ask. If you decide its not so, then I would be overjoyed to read what you – a Mac user for 20 years have to say about why Macs are worth the money :)
I am particular concerned about having to pay each time a new version of the OS comes out, and some other small nags, like the famous one button mouse. I will not say anymore right now, and will leave it up to you to describe why Macs are so lovable :)
Richard, given the quality of your other articles, I have a feeling that you can make a good contribution to the “why get a Mac and why is it actually cheaper” debate. However, I am wondering whether instead of a very lengthy or multi-part piece you should not instead aim for a kind of “say it all in one page” article with some URLS to the lengthier articles already out there. I somehow feel that a short to the point piece with links would offer a greater contribution.
Anyway, just my two cents.
A few things pre-big post:
1. It’s not like Microsoft doesn’t charge for big OS upgrades so there is no difference here. The 1.5 to 2 years between these big system upgrades is a while and they are not bug fixes; they are complete reworks with new apps and functionality. Unlike others, I have never felt ripped by Apple charging for these large upgrades. The bug fixes are free and happen online automatically.
2. You can use any USB mouse with a Mac: multi-button, scroll wheel what have you. Whatever you’re used to will work out just fine.
Two urban legends down, 20K to go!
I’ll cook up a big post at some point, thanks for the encouragement.
Yes, you are absolutely right about the OS upgrade thing. It is like getting a whole new computer with powerful improved and new features for just $129. If you do anything serious with your computer they are worth every penny of it.
Tiger…. grrrrrrr!
[...] somewhat proud to be a small part of that today. I was informed by Richard (who has some similar anecdotes [...]
Glad you enjoyed the book Justin. Now you have to try to meet Hertzfeld and Atkinson… they live in your neck of the woods. Both of them are insanely nice people.