29 Aug
2006
29 Aug
'06
1:40 p.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
While a PC is a PC is a PC seems to be the common view
here (I've even said
it in explaining why I don't collect them), the fact is, it isn't true. I
didn't even realize how much change in the PC market there has been in the
last 10 years until I started writting this up. By comparison to a current
system, a lowly Pentium computer is a primative beast indeed. Why doesn't
this antique deserve to take it's rightful place as a "Classic"?
I think almost everyone here has a favorite platform, and it is almost
always something other than a PC. How many here are objecting to the idea
of a Pentium as a classic because the PC killed their favorite platform.
[my *sole* comment to this thread]
I think the 386 is where the "classic" line makes sense to be drawn.
It marked the point at which more modern *and* more "classic"
software/OS's could migrate to the consumer market (the 8086/8 was
too crippled -- though I would consider early PC/AT's classic
as well -- and, the 286 didn't have real VM support). The 386 marked
a quantum step "up" (whether that step was FORWARD or BACKWARD can
be argued by others)