I am very excited for Jason Snell’s “20 Macs for 2020”, a retrospective that covers what he considers to be the twenty most notable Macs. The very subject of the podcast got me asking myself, which of the many Macs that I’ve used in the last 30 years would I consider the most notable to me? Jason emphasized his choice of the word “notable” as opposed to “favorite” or “best”. In this spirit, the Macs on my list are ones that have left an indelible mark in my memory because their vastly better experience permanently changed my expectations of the personal computer.

Powerbook Duo

While I suspect Jason (as well as many others) see the Powerbook 100 as the prototypical laptop, it was the Powerbook Duo that I imprinted on. My mother had acquired a then outdated Duo on cheap at some yard sale¹. What separated it from most other laptops was its weight and size. The Duo was 1.4 inches thick and weighed 4.2 lbs. That is chunky by today’s standards, but the aforementioned Powerbook 100 released just one year prior was 1.8 inches thick and nearly a pound heavier. Even if that doesn’t seem like a lot, using the Duo on a lap felt miles better than the Powerbook 100. (I know this because my mother also acquired an even more outdated Powerbook 100 on cheap at some other yard sale later on.) Furthermore while Apple managed to ship thinner laptops as soon as 2001 with the Titanium Powerbook G4, they did not release a lighter laptop until the Macbook Air, over a decade after the last duo was discontinued. Think about that.

Power Mac G3 (Blue and White)

During high school, I had a used Power Macintosh 7100, which I had the displeasure of gradually upgrading over a few years. I say “displeasure” because upgrading the RAM on the 7100 was harder than any other user-upgradable computer I’ve ever owned. On the chance that this bad experience was due to inexperience or became exaggerated in hindsight, I did a quick search and found the following from this guide to upgrading memory on the 7100:

Now comes the hard part, what makes the 7100 one of the hardest machines to add RAM to. The SIMM slots are on the motherboard, beneath the CD-ROM drive. The platform on which the drives and power supply are mounted is screwed into the case at two places: to the left of the hard drive and to the right of the CD-ROM drive. Unscrew these 2. The rear of this platform simply rests in the back panel of the case. What you have to do to access the slots is to lift up the platform in the front, so you can fit your hands underneath the CD-ROM drive. I needed a friend to help me out here. It also helps to remove the power supply, though some have claimed it isn’t necessary. To remove the power supply, take out the plastic clip that lays across it on top, and unplug the cord from the rear of the case if you haven’t already. If you look beneath the power supply, you will see the white plug where it attaches to the motherboard. You might have to loosen this a bit by prying with an insulated material. Then lift the power supply straight up.

Despite my difficulties with the 7100, I wasn’t interested in immediately replacing it… and until I saw this commercial for the blue and white Power Mac G3. While it does mention power and shows off the new blue and white design, this ad exists to illustrate how accessable the internals are for upgrading. This was a message made specifically for people like me who had to practically disassemble their whole machine just to upgrade the goddamn RAM. I’ve been excited about many Macs, but the blue and white Power Mac G3 remains the only computer I’ve truly desired.

iBook G3 (Snow)

I don’t remember buying my iBook from the local Apple Store. What I remember is bringing it home, sitting on the couch with it, looking at the 8 foot long ethernet cable, and going right back to that Apple Store to spend another $400 for an AirPort Card and Base Station. I suspect it’s hard to imagine for anyone who didn’t grow up without wireless networking, but Wi-Fi introduced the concept of casual computing. Browsing the web used to necessarily be a dedicated and often isolated activity. You had to sit down at a desk or table where the computer could be tethered to a network cable. With this iBook and AirPort, I could browse web while watching TV or look something up without having to leave the conversation. This iBook is probably in the lower half of my favorite Macs, but its wireless networking forever changed how I used computers.

The Powerbook Duo set my expectations for what a laptop should be. The Power Mac G3 set the bar for me in terms of ease of upgradability. The iBook with AirPort was my first experience with truly casual computing. None of these three Macs were the fastest for their day (nor would they have stayed that way for long even if they were), and I don’t think any of them are my favorite. They all loom large in my memory because each of them vastly improved my computing experience.