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Welcome to Macintosh is the definitive Apple documentary. It covers the history of Apple: its people, products and community. It’s the kind of documentary you actually want to see, not the kind you dreaded in high school. It has real production value and is on a topic you obviously have an interest in and care about. If you could use a lesson on Apple history, then you owe it to yourself to pick up Welcome to Macintosh.

The movie features some of the same people who are in MacHEADS, but don’t dismiss these two as being the same; they are, in fact, quite different.  MacHEADS focuses on the community, where as Welcome to Macintosh focuses on Apple history; things like Apple’s beginnings, and how products originated.  They even have an entire segment dedicated to the start up sound. As strange as this may read, that may have been the section I most enjoyed in this film. Over the years, I’ve become attached to that sound, as simple as it may be.

Actually, Welcome to Macintosh is really the documentary I was expecting when I viewed MacHEADS. There is much more of a history lesson, complete with enough behind the scenes clips to keep you interested. Unfortunately, as a result of the time it takes to edit a quality documentary like this, it’s a bit dated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like it’s old news or something, but the newest piece of footage that made the film was from the original iPhone announcement. Also, there aren’t any interviews with Steve Jobs or the like, but he won’t sit down with anyone anymore will he?

I’ve admitted it before, but I’ll do it again. I haven’t always been a Mac fan, and I really did need a brushing up on Apple history. If this sounds like you, then this is the answer. It will have you up to speed with most of the important information about Apple.

And don’t for a second think that this is some low quality, homemade documentary. This is high quality. It’s not HD, but it’s very well shot and edited. I felt like I was watching a documentary made by the likes of Michael Moore; but I wasn’t mad after viewing it, and I didn’t feel like I had been mislead.

A nice touch about the movie is that it comes with a digital copy on the DVD that can be copied to iTunes and your iPhone or iPod. I love it when movies come with this on the disk. I may never actually watch the digital copy, but it tells me that the makers “get it.” Fewer restrictions make happier customers. To further prove that they get it, and that they care, they even have their own community site.  It’s a pretty informative site, with discussions, video clips, screenings, etc. Check it out.

It may be months away from the festivus for the rest of us, but at least you can have the (completely unrelated) documentary for the rest of us. If you had to pick between MacHEADS and Welcome to Macintosh, I’d have to steer you towards the latter. It’s more interesting, and obviously has higher production values.  You can tell they really put some effort into this, and you’ll enjoy it. Seriously, you need to check out Welcome to Macintosh.