I've often wondered about this myself. The answer lies in the word "collect" which implies, in this case, INTENTIONAL accumulation of what most folks would consider junk, in order to play with it, fiddle with it, admire it, fantasize about how things might have been if you'd had one back when they were of some value, etc. I don't do any of those things.
I am just an accumulator, and once in a while, I even pass up a system, wholly functional just because I don't want equipment from that manufacturer. IBM and DEC are two such, and the latter, at least, is really popular among collectors. Both have in common that they maximized the terabucks per femptoflop, continuing to use old costly technology where newer cheaper technology would have been better. Hindsight's always 20/20, they say, but I think it differs from one person to the next. Looking back, most collectors are glad the systems they collect were. As for me, I'm just glad they're gone.
Of course, I do have my niche . . .
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Ram Meenakshisundaram <rmeenaks_at_olf.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, November 15, 1999 2:18 PM
Subject: Dont want to start a flame war here but
Hi,
Just curious. What motivates someone to collect old minis and mainframes??? I can see it being nice to look at for a while, but something as big as a mini is very cumbersome to have around the house (let alone an apartment). And what pratical use does it serve running it at home anyway??? I see a lot of posts about collectors having paper tapes, reels, card readers, etc, but how often does one really use it or even turn it on. I would imagine that it probably sets idle for about 95-99% of the time and most people would turn on a PC instead. I have a SUN IPX and a PC. I rarely turn the SUN on, but I keep it around to do some practical UNIX programming on a real UNIX box instead of linux, freebsd, etc. As I said, I dont want to start a flame war or anything, just curious thats all......
Ram
PS: If I started to collect stuff like that, my wife will throw me out of the house. She already complains about my transputer equipment...
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