Jason Snell, writing for The Verge as part of its Apple @ 50 series:

Apple would never have made it if it weren’t for the Apple II, the company’s first hit product and the first one to generate the amount of devotion we’ve now come to expect from fans of Apple’s products. Their slogan was, and still is, “Apple II Forever!”

The Apple II family is the system on which I cut my computing teeth, so I was pleased to see this foundational computer remembered as part of Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations. An entire generation of kids were inspired to “do stuff” with computers because of the Apple II—including yours truly.

In the summer of 1981, my mom decided that the best thing she could do for her son’s future was to send him to computer summer camp. (She’d been learning word processing on a Wang system and perhaps recognized the power of computing—though it may have just been a way to keep her rambunctious and overly energetic son out of her hair for a few hours each day.)

That camp was my introduction to computers: an Apple ][+, including a black Bell & Howell edition. I learned Logo and BASIC programming, and immediately fell in love with the technology. I devoured as many computer books and magazines as I could scrounge up, dreaming of the day I’d have my own computer.

When I started high school a couple of years later, I gained access to the Commodore PET and Apple //e. I spent hours in the computer lab and became quite proficient with them. Though I kept up with several computers (with Apple, Timex Sinclair, and VIC-20 among my obsessions), I found myself leaning toward Apple-centric magazines like InCider, Nibble, and A+ and that preference was solidified the year my mother bought me my very own computer.

It was 1984, and my mom woke me up early Christmas morning. Sitting next to my bed was the large red box of an Apple //c computer and monitor. My uncle owned one, and I’d spent time at his house hacking away on it. He’d once promised to bring it over so I could have more time with it, so even in my sleepy state, my initial jolt of overwhelming excitement at seeing the box was quickly replaced with cold logic: “What’s my uncle’s computer doing here?”

I recall my dawning realization that, no, this was my new computer—a wholly unexpected Christmas gift from my parents.

It remains my most vivid and cherished Christmas memory, and a love affair that had been sparked a few summers earlier exploded—and has never been quenched.

My platform obsession eventually shifted to Macintosh, on which I built my career, but I’ll always remember my first computing love. Though the Apple II has long been eclipsed in capability, it will never be surpassed in its importance.

Twenty years after I first used an Apple computer, I started working at Apple Computer. My first day was April 2, 2001—25 years ago today. When I applied for that job, my cover letter noted, “I still have my Apple //c—and it still works.”

That remains true today.

Apple II Forever.