Do you know what happened 40 years ago today? You should.

Everybody knows I’m an Apple fanboy, even if I do go off on rants about my problems with my iPhone.

My first experiences with Macintosh computers was, like many of us, in college (am I showing my age here?). I can remember writing papers in MacWrite and wanting to actually lay out the page, move things around, and was frustrated that I couldn’t. Of course, I didn’t know Pagemaker existed then, and we wouldn’t have had it at school anyway. I was using a word processing program instead of a page layout program. 

I also fooled around with MacDraw, filling in circles and squares with garrish colors and silly patterns, but wanting the ability to “punch” objects, manipulate their shapes, etc. Basically, I wanted to hand draw on the Mac. 

Upon entering the workforce after graduation, I discovered Pagemaker 4.0, FreeHand 2.0 and Photoshop 2.0. The angels sang. Now I could do what I wanted to do with this little box.

Meanwhile, other offices were getting something called Windows and I saw it and it was ugly and made no sense. I stayed with my Mac and have had them every since. 

Now stay with me here. Proposition 8 in California is a voter referendum on the ballot this fall that denies equal rights of marriage to everyone in the state. Many, many, many people have stated their opposition to this and are asking Californians to vote NO on Prop 8 on election day.

Today, Apple has stepped up to the plate. The statement from their Hot News page:

No on Prop 8
October 24, 2008

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

Makes me wanna run out and buy a new iMac.