It’s a sad evening for me.  Steve Jobs has passed away.  This event has really made me internalize how special of a man Steve Jobs was and how lucky we have been to live in a time when he was around.   It was Mike Davidson who really brought Steve Jobs to my attention back in late 1998.  I grew up a PC and Mike was the Mac.  When we worked together we’d spend countless hours “fighting” over which platform was the best.

My first exposure to computers was in elementary school on the Commodore PET, I loved it.  I asked my parents for one but instead got a used  Magnavox Odessey 2 (I know it’s technically a gaming console but to me it was a computer as it had a “keyboard”).  My passion grew and then got a Commodore 64 — I always wanted an Apple but they were to expensive.  I did manage to get an Apple clone, the Franklin ACE 2100.  My first “real” computer was an IBM PC-XT (8088) clone with amber monochrome monitor (which was later upgraded to CGA then EGA).

In high school I finally got to use a Macintosh.  I started a video magazine show that aired during lunch called Kang Magazine.  All the graphics and titles were done using the Mac and Macromedia Director.  At home I still used PC’s — I skipped the 286, but had the 386, 486, Pentium, and up.  I did manage to buy an Apply Newton but that wasn’t a Steve Jobs creation.  In 2002, My first Mac purchase was the “Mirrored Door” G4 paired with a 22″ Cinema Display it shipped with the last version of OS9.   Right when OSX was released, I quickly upgraded.  That machine was a brilliant work of visual art.

Mike would never miss a MacWorld and would sometimes take the mornings off just to watch them (something that I didn’t understand at the time) on other occasions he would come into work, lean back in his chair and crank the volume up so we all could listen to Steve Jobs’ work his magic in presenting the latest computer and OS update. No work would get done in that hour or so.  As I am an avid music lover, once the iPod was announced that was the tipping point for me.  I bought every single version of the iPod since it’s release.  I began watching Steve Jobs keynotes myself — but still used a PC for my day-to-day job.

Fast forward to today… I own Mac’s, iPad’s, iPhone’s, AppleTV’s.  I’m a Mac.  There a no more fights with Mike on the subject and I can’t wait for the next announcement from Apple.  It is all due to Steve Jobs and the team of people at Apple with a passion to create some of the best consumer products of our lifetime.  Even without Steve Jobs, I know Apple will still be able to create great products, much like Disney still continues years after Walt’s passing.  It’s heart breaking to see such an inspiring man be taken at such a young age. My thoughts and prayers to his wife and his children.

Goodbye, Steve Jobs.