I started out with a PC. Most of my friends had one, and after fooling around with their computers, I bought one from Gateway with a 486 processor. Macs seemed expensive and distant; I never considered one to be a serious option. These were the heady days when Microsoft seemed to be a cornucopia of cheap or free software. I think my original Gateway came with a free copy of Microsoft Word that I upgraded to MS Office for a whopping 25 bucks.
In 1993 I got a new job at a junior college, complete with an empty desk in a sterile-looking office. I also got a small research budget; the first thing on my purchase list was a computer. My friend in the adjoining office was a Mac person who advised me buy an Apple. I decided I'd broaden my computing horizons and bought an LC 550 in 1994.
Did I mention I was teaching in Japan? My first Mac came with a Japanese operating system. These were the dark days before unicode and for some reason, probably lack of budget, I didn't spring for an English version of the OS and the Apple Japanese Language Kit. I figured I could get along, even flourish, with my friend's help, my meager Japanese, and a lot of English software.
