About Alexis KayhillI'm a 20 year Mac user veteran, writer, photographer, wife, and mommy. I live in sunny San Diego with my husband, three children, two dogs, one mean old cat, and an SUV with a back seat full of beach sand.
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Why Did You Buy Your Specific Mac Model?
Some of us have owned a couple of dozen Macs, starting with the original 128k in 1984. Others are relatively recent switchers from Windows PCs. Individually, we each have different Mac models and chose them for different reasons. What are yours?
Which Mac And Why?
These might sound like basic questions with simple answers, but the answers vary among our Mac360 writers.
Natalia Nowak: Nathan and I have used Macs since middle school, and we work on Macs (and PCs) as system administrators and part-time teachers.
Both of us have a Mac at home. Nathan has an iMac. I have a 13-inch MacBook Pro, but with an external display. We use MacBook Pros and iMacs (and PCs) at school to manage other Macs.
At home we use our Macs for email, browsing, music, photos, and movies mostly—but the Macs have become our digital hub for music creation in Garageband.
Jack Miller: I was a Windows PC user for 10 years before being converted by my wife. I have an iMac and use it as our central location for iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, plus email and web browsing. I’m not into social media apps.
My wife, Carol, is a teacher and uses a MacBook Pro to prepare lesson plans, presentations, and for tracking student progress.
Jeffrey Mincey: We’re a two Mac family. My wife has an older iMac and a Mac mini attached to an Apple display. I have a MacBook Pro. At work I have a MacBook Pro which runs Windows and Linux (I’m a PC and Mac system administrator). I’ve owned and worked on PCs since DOS and pre-Windows 20 years ago.
At home we us the Mac mini to manage our photos, music, and movies. We have dozens of utility apps but nothing from Adobe or Microsoft.
Bambi Brannan: I’ve been a Mac user since the early 1990s, before Mac OS X. My husband and I have a MacBook Pro, an iMac, and an older Mac Pro (my husband’s). All of our family music, photos, movies, and files are synced to the Mac Pro.
Much of my time is devoted to the apps in Microsoft Office (for work). My husband is the resident Adobe guru and recently purchased Adobe CS5. He needs the power. I need the mobility and a larger screen. Increasingly, especially when I travel out of town, I can get by without the MBP and rely on the iPhone for email, browsing, and presentations.
Ron McElfresh: I’m an original Mac 128k buyer from back in March 1984. Since then, I’ve owned dozens of Macs of every size and flavor. Today, we have four Macs at home. An aging Mac mini, a MacBook, and dual iMacs; one for my wife, one for me (we’re both iPhone users so the MacBook is seldom used).
My wife manages the family photos, music, movies, and money on her iMac. Mine is used for work and contains a few hundred apps, including Adobe’s Creative Suite, many web centric apps, Final Cut Studio. I’ve been Microsoft free for three years. For us, screen real estate is more important than mobility.
Wil Gomez: I have a MacBook Pro (among a couple of other PC notebooks) but no desktop Mac or PC. I travel frequently so my Mac is my home and everything I own is stored there.
Music, movies, apps, photos, so my main personal apps are in the iLife suite, and I use MobileMe. I bought the MacBook Pro because screen size is less important than mobility.
Kate MacKenzie: I use an iMac in the office, but also carry my personal MacBook Pro when I travel, which is often.
My apps of choice include Adobe CS5, Microsoft Office (for compatibility with the office; I’m slowly switching to iWork).
At home I use iLife to manage my music, movie, and photo libraries. I chose the iMac because I needed a bigger screen. The MacBook Pro because I travel, but my iPhone doubles as a Mac, too. I’ve owned or used Macs for over 15 years.
Alexis Kayhill: That would be me. I’ve used a Mac since high school. Our household is loaded with Macs. A MacBook for the kids, an iMac and MacBook for me, an iMac for my husband, and an older Mac mini which used to be for backup but now backs up the kids.
I use my Macs for work and as backup for my husband’s iMac which is the central location for everything iLife. I run Adobe Creative Suite and test dozens of Mac apps on my MacBook.
That’s a peak at what we own and how long we’ve owned Macs and what we use our Macs to accomplish today. Back to the original questions: How long have you owned a Mac? Why did you choose the Mac you have now?
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