16 Nov
1997
16 Nov
'97
6:27 p.m.
Carl R. Friend wrote
Age, also, alone, does not make a classic. I doubt
that the standard
run-of-the-mill '386 PeeCee will ever amount to anything except to,
perhaps, archaeologists who dig one out of a landfill. There were too
many of them made, and they were (are) regarded as "disposable". Look
at the construction - modern machines aren't made to be repaired any
more than a disposable cigarette lighter is made to be refilled. They
burn out, you toss' em, and buy another one.
There are a few standouts in the genus. Notably to mind comes the NCR
PC line, specifically the PC-812 and the PC-916 from the late '80s.
Rugged construction and passive backplane -- the damned things just
wouldn't die. Built in West Germany, I assume by retired Mercedes and
Volkswagen technicians. Then NCR went to using mass-market OEM boards
and the next thing you know they're bought by AT&T.
And Zenith stands out, if only for their ability to always come up with
a chassis uglier than their previous record, with nobody else even
trying to compete. Yet their laptops generally looked good.
--
Ward Griffiths
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails
of the last priest." [Denis Diderot, "Dithyrambe sur la fete de rois"]