Well, where to begin?
I've been interested in computers since Christmas 1988 when my parents purchased our first computer, a Commodore 64 (I'm showing my age!). When it eventually came time to upgrade to something a bit more flexible, my dad borrowed a Macintosh Classic (I think) from his work for a weekend or two, and it left a lasting impression.
I remember being enamoured with this computer that was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The idea that you didn't need to know what commands to type in order to do what you wanted to do, that everything was represented graphically, it was fascinating. System 7, the high resolution graphics, the ability to record and play back sound, a mouse, the whole design... it was all so intuitive, I could have (and did!) played around on it for hours.
Unfortunately it did have to be returned, and after lots of looking around at all the different options available we went with a PC (~1992) as the Macintoshes were just too expensive, and I've stuck with owning PCs since. I do think that it was a good thing however, because it definitely provided a steeper learning curve, which I don't think is a bad thing.
Anyway, several years later (~2000) one of my older brothers started working at a local post production facility doing 3D work (on a PC) where, perhaps not surprisingly, they exclusively used Macs. I sometimes provided support on the Windows side of things where it was required, but seeing the many different Macs in use running OS X piqued my interest. I bought a second hand Powermac G4 Sawtooth off of eBay, cleaned it up and upgraded it a bit, and put OS 9 and OS X Tiger on it. I'm sorry to say that I've only recently started to play around with it a bit more, but even though it's over 15 years old there's still (to me) something special about it. Maybe it's nothing more that nostalgia, maybe not. I find it a bit sad that these older machines are considered "worthless" by most, and so are discarded.
I do wonder what will happen when the last of the OS 9 capable hardware ceases to operate. If it can't be emulated, is all the software then lost to history?
Anyway, I think I found this forum when I was trying to find the easiest way to upgrade my G4 to support SATA drives. Thanks for reading if you've come this far!
tl;dr: I have a Powermac G4 Sawtooth
