Interview: A Family Of Macs Get The Love They Deserve

When I saw this snap in the Cult of Mac Flickr pool, I wanted to find out more. Who is the owner of the little family of Macs old and new, and how did they end up on this desk?

Their owner is Aleksandr Kaidanovskij, a resident of Verona in Italy. (Verona is a lovely city, incidentally. If you ever get a chance, go there.)

I asked him: what’s going on? Why all these Macs, and how did you get them?

Aleksandr is a relatively new Mac user, and relatively new collector of Macs. “I just love these machines and the design behind them,” he says. “The collection is just a way to regain the time I have lost, but too many machines are yet missing.”

The machines are:

• Mac Plus manufactured in 1986
• iMac G3 from 1999
• iMac 20’ from 2007
• and a bang-up-to-date MacBook Pro bought this year

All the machines are working except Macintosh Plus that is now suffering a hardware problem (although he hopes to fix it).

Aleksandr says: “The Mac Plus has been used to try out and explore System 7. I use the G3 to keep records of some of my archives.” The newer machines are in daily use.

DON'T MISS
Donate Your Old Mac For Art

The iMac G3 was found in a second-hand market, sitting unloved between a pile of 70s clothes and some dead television sets. In Aleksandr’s words: “It had to be saved.” I have a feeling quite a few Cult readers will know exactly what he means by that.

The Mac Plus was found in a Rome garage, where it had been snoozing undisturbed for about 15 years. No wonder it needs a little maintenance.

(Thanks to Aleksandr for answering the Cult’s nosy questions and allowing us to use his photo. He has plenty more pics in this Flickr set.)

6 comments »