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My first computer was a TRASH 80' so called from its Radio Shack number, TRS-80. I programmed the applications I needed in BASIC and used its word processor.

In 1985, at work I was introduced to the PC and was forced to learn a horrendous series of F keys to do anything. There was no mouse that is now the standard operating tool adopted from the Apple.

However, following the end of my son's successful programming contract I acquired one of his new computers. It was a Macintosh 128k (first introduced in January 1984). Under his instruction I learnt how to use the mouse, how to cut-and-paste and to use all the bundled Apple applications and many other short cuts that the PC didn't have. Furthermore, the smooth line screen characters made the dot-matrix PC characters look like something from a cheap arcade toy. Using the Macintosh was a pleasure rather than work.

I was sold on the Macintosh and have used them in succeeding more powerful versions for the past 23 years. My present iMac with dual processors has a 320 GB hard disc compared to the original versions 128kB and its capabilities are immense.

Through the past quarter of a century I have watched the PC makers, from IBM onwards, trying to catch up with Apple technology. Yet even with the introduction of Windows and its successive versions the PC is still far behind. It is built on a different processing system that requires workarounds' to do anything that the Macintosh does inherently.

For example, the Macintosh inherently recognizes a file without the necessity of having a limited length of title and a three-character file extension like <.doc>. File characteristics are bundled in the file but the PC requires the extension as a recognition crutch. The Macintosh can save files with any extension for to help the handicapped PC recognize things.
In the present Macintosh Leopard operating system, files can be accessed by recognition, by simply leafing through files and papers as you would in a filing cabinet, in addition to accessing a file name.

Of great utility too is the Macintosh's ability to have multiple applications open on the screen at the same time instead of having to shut down one to use another. I can switch instantly from this Word Processor to one of two browsers that I have open, one to research facts and one to write in Helium.

I have heard stupid statements by PC users such as "why would I pay far more for a computer that only has a one button mouse?" The reason is that the Macintosh is far more powerful and doesn't need a two button crutch. Moreover, new Macintoshes are cheaper than PCs (down to $580) so the first part of the question had no bearing.

However, it will be some time before PCs die out because Bill Gates had great management sense to encourage companies to use PCs , essentially by bribery, and to allow any other companies to clone the original IBM machines. That got the PC a head start in the corporate and government worlds. However, it is only a matter of time with the surge of Macintosh users that in a decade or so new computer users will ask, "What was Windows?"

Learn more about this author, John Graham.
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