REAL MEN

March 19, 2024

They say that “Real men don’t eat quiche”.

There was a real cultural war going on in the early days of personal computers. Apple had become a symbol for fun, revolution, innovation, and fighting the establishment. IBM, PCs, and Microsoft were for REAL MEN. Apple computer was considered a fad, a kid’s toy or a form of communism.

Schools were divided between the two, but my biased recollection was that it was 80/20, Apples to PCs. In the early days the Mac was new so people talked about Apples.

The CTCAIS technology committee had launched the CTP and now wanted to start helping the IT folks with their journey. Schools were just beginning to wire the buildings for networks, implement email, create computer labs, implement file sharing of digital documents and convert the administrative offices to databases.

The next offering would be a two day computer coordinator/network manager bootcamp, learning computer lab networking, printing, file sharing and email installation held during the summer at Miss Halls School near Hartford. We decided that we did not want to tackle the Apple/PC debate but to offer both. So we got two teams established, and got a grant to buy 6 of each type to be delivered to the site along with a printer.

About 18 people signed up — 12 Apple people and 6 PC.

At 9 am our first day we marched into two adjacent rooms, each with 6 boxes in them. There was a tension in the air as each group eyed the other, with a bit of haughtiness toward their obviously ignorant choice of platform. The PC people at breakfast had boasted about how much more memory their standard machines had and how much faster their processors were.

In the Apple room we unpacked the 6 Macs, and located the AppleTalk connectors and the phone cables. By 9:45 you could hear the musical CHIME as each Mac booted. We plugged in the AppleTalk connectors and added the ImageWriter printer.

Back then Macs were using AppleTalk, and immediately on each Mac you could see the other computers in the room as well as the printer. We named each computer and the printer. Then we added admin privileges for each person on one of the computers. ClarisWorks came installed on the machines so we could immediately write a text document and share it with each other. And we could print them.

We then installed FirstClass, an incredible groupware product that included email as well as filesharing. Everyone got an email and we gave different people permissions to create department folders and such. We connected our network to the school network and immediately had Internet access. It was 11:30 and time for lunch. 

We glanced over to the PC room. People were pacing about and talking in nervous tones. Investigating, we learned that two of the machines would not boot, and the network cards had not been delivered. The team lead had headed over to the nearest computer store for supplies. 

Lunch was a bit tense as we tried to avoid the issue, but one of the PC participants asked if he could come over while they waited and use email to get some work done. We agreed. 

By two o’clock the PC team leader was back, and was installing the network cards in the PCs. Unfortunately the network driver software was on a CD, and the CDs were not configured. That software was also on a CD! So they packed up a couple of machines and headed BACK to the computer store in Hartford. 

By 2pm we had pretty much exhausted our list of tasks and file sharing, printing and email were working as well as internet access. We decided to take a tour of the school’s IT facilities. The PC people remained behind to either work on the stubborn machines or sit in the Mac lab and either do email or play games. 

By dinner the PCs were still not working and the participants were all sitting in the Mac lab doing email or asking some questions. There was a huge elephant in the room. 

We really weren’t sure what to do for the next day but I offered to show people how we had revolutionized our offices and teacher comments with FileMaker. People eagerly sat for a 2 hour hands on session and were asking how they could get FileMaker databases at their school. 

The PC folks were still milling around as they finally got three of the computers booted and connected. It turned out that the printer driver software was an old version and they could not ever get the printer to work. The two dead machines were exchanged and they proudly boasted that the new machines had even MORE RAM and storage space. 

By afternoon we were breaking down and nearly all the PC people were using the Mac network. The PC team leader was furiously calling the computer store and trying to get things finally going. 

As we left for home we looked around the group. No one really needed to say anything. Was it still true that REAL MEN only used PCs?

They say that “Real men don’t eat quiche”.