YADA10YR (Yet Another Discussion About the 10 Year Rule)

From: TeoZ <teoz_at_neo.rr.com>
Date: Thu Sep 4 18:52:00 2003

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Shannon" <bshannon_at_tiac.net>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: YADA10YR (Yet Another Discussion About the 10 Year Rule)


> IMO, 'coolness' is the key factor, but it cannot be used as any form of
> criteria for the list simply
> because what I find cool, someone else will not.
>
> So I tend to think about the 'collectability' of a given bit of
> hardware. This is much easier to define
> in a common way.
>
> One key factor in 'collectability' is rarity. Most PC's (but not all)
> are commodity products, produced
> by the tens of thousands, even millions. to my eyes, such machines will
> never have much value as a
> collectable.
>
> Its also true that commodity products generally are not good examples of
> ground-breaking new
> technology, so they also lack intrinsic value as collectables.
>
> Now if you had the first PC with an Active Matrix color LCD (was not a
> laptop BTW!), which was
> also an EISA-bus AC powered 'portable', then I would say that PC is a
> bit collectable, and on-topic.
> But this is because it broke new technical ground and marked a turning
> point in computing technology.
> It was also not produced in any great numbers and was quickly obsoleted,
> so its a rather rare machine.
>
> A blanket cut-off date is simple snobbery, and ignores that computer
> evolution does continue today.
>
> I don't see much classic potential in a Geo Metro, no matter how old it
> gets. Same for any clone PC
> thrown together from off-the shelf parts, or even a brand-name 'me-too'
PC.
>
> I would not want to see the list turn into a MS-DOS or Windows support
> group, that would be a
> plug-pulling situation for my personally.

Its not just the hardware, its the software that you run on it thats
classic.
While I have no love for the commodity PC I do love the classic games that
ran on them.
The best selling PC in the world was a C64, it was ground breaking for price
performance, sold in the 8-10,000,000 and isnt rare at all.
A machine without software is just a nice looking door stop. Its a
combination of the machine and the software that makes a classic in my eyes.
I agree with the windows support group being a bad idea. A Powermac 8500
isnt a classic machine, but when people start talking about getting their
Videovision Studio with Telecast running and the cool things it can do I get
interested (yes I have a setup). I am also interested in not so common
software (Apple A/UX , Desqview/X on the PC) on common equipment. Where do
you draw the line between "How do I save a file in windows 95" to "I have a
glitch in my A/D data aquisition card in my Pentium Lab machine"?
Received on Thu Sep 04 2003 - 18:52:00 BST