25 Greatest PCs of all time - Yes, Amiga made the list!

[Hyperspeed]

What... like the Atari Portfolio in Terminator 2?

:-D

[jdiffend]

Hyperspeed wrote:
What... like the Atari Portfolio in Terminator 2?

:-D

Think 1980.  A Pocket computer when there weren't many desktop computers.
The Portfolio was kinda neat but came 9 years later.

Pocket Computer 1

[TjLaZer]

And why of all amigas the crappyest one seriously dont understand that if pick a model why not the 500 if the erliest ones the 1000 is beyond me to understand..

They picked the A1000 because it was revolutionary for it's time (1985) and it was the computer that broke new grounds in Graphics, Sound, Multitasking.  Plus this is the original Amiga, the rest were just minor improvements.

[justthatgood]

@Anyone that actually cares about THIS list's results


Alright I guess it's time to kill this thread. Every once and a while some of you come up with some good threads that start a good discussion, a little bit of debate.

That's all good and all, but sometimes... Sometimes there are a few POINTLESS threads like this that are just blind system advocacy, rabid fanatic rants, and cultist elistist "Holy OS War" chants redux.

 :violin:  

[r0jaws]

@ Matt_H

Do you mean the Toshiba Libretto 50ct?Adorable Libretto Homepage
I had one with those specs, about the same size as a Video case. It was a dinky little thing, quite handy, managed to get Vextorlinux and Win98 running dual boot, it came with windows 95 but it could run Win2000 with a 32mb ram upgrade.
I also managed to wirelessly network it and get all sorts of useful stuff running on it, I eventually sold it though as it's short battery life really hampered it's useability (using wireless knocked it down to about 30mins!)
A new battery could probably have sorted that out though, the 100ct is much more useful though they sell all the time on eBay.
Not revolutionary by any means just a handy little beastie. :-D

[SyrTran]

@jdiffend

Um... pocket PC's? Anyone remember those? The author didn't. They were the predicessor of the palm computers and the Newton didn't even get a mention either.

Remember them?!??  Mine's sitting right here!  Still works pretty well, too (except for the fact that the mercury-filled 675s were banned and the zinc-oxide S76s don't last nearly as long).  Got mine sometime in '81.  Had to replace the display about 15 years ago after I dropped it.

[SyrTran]

@Matt_H

Unfortunate that things like this aren't made any more. I saw a 'real' pocket PC in a store in Canada in 1997. Low-end Pentium, 16MB of RAM, Win95, and a full keyboard (can't remember if it had a numeric pad... probably not). Wouldn't win any awards for technical specifications, but it was smaller than a DVD case.
not).

PocketPCs now are significantly smaller, but they can't run the same programs as your desktop machine!

Samsung Q1

[SyrTran]

Did any of the complainers read the full story linked on the list page?  They give a bit of reasoning for the computers they picked.  They also give a list of 25 "near-greats."  Unfortunately, PC World is definitely an American-centric magazine, so the BBC Micro isn't on the near-great list, either.

From the full article:

No single characteristic makes a computer great. But we managed to boil down an array of winning qualities into four factors, all of which happen to begin with the letter I.

Innovation: Did the PC do anything that was genuinely new? Did it incorporate the latest technology?
Impact: Was it widely imitated? Did it become part of the cultural zeitgeist?
Industrial design: Was it a looker? Did it have clever features that made using it a pleasure?
Intangibles: Was there anything else about it that set it apart from the same ol' same ol'?

IMO, the C64 fails the Innovation part.  It was really just a souped-up Vic-20.  OTOH, it definitely had the Impact part down (mostly due to its cost at the time).  I'll bet there's still more professional game programmers that got their start on the C64 than any other machine.

[Matt_H]

@ r0jaws

I'm not sure if it was that, but it was pretty similar. Thanks for pointing this out!

@ Syrtran

That Q1 looks nifty, but more expensive.

[motrucker]

Commodore never gets its due. So often Apple is credited with starting the computer revolution, but they don't think about the PET computer line, OR where Apple bought their CPUs from.
Since Apple bought their great CPU from Commodore (MOS technologies, which CBM owned), How can Apple be "first"?

[bloodline]

SyrTran wrote:
@Matt_H

Unfortunate that things like this aren't made any more. I saw a 'real' pocket PC in a store in Canada in 1997. Low-end Pentium, 16MB of RAM, Win95, and a full keyboard (can't remember if it had a numeric pad... probably not). Wouldn't win any awards for technical specifications, but it was smaller than a DVD case.
not).

PocketPCs now are significantly smaller, but they can't run the same programs as your desktop machine!

Samsung Q1

Yet another AROS capable machine... :roll:
:lol:

[CLS2086]

Hum, very strange list.
It should be named : 25 Greatest innovative Desktop systems of all time.
But why there is an Atari 800 in it (Atari 400 was made before with half ram...)   :-?

[jdiffend]

I like how other computers were treated like separate models but the "Apple II" was all Apple II models lumped into one.
The Actual Apple II didn't sell that long before it was replaced with the II+.  It was around a little longer and then replaced with the IIe which accounted for the majority of the lines sales.
If you separate the models the II was just a blip of sales from all the production runs.

[chrispb]

The Amiga 1000 was the first and it was a truely great machine. It had that keyboard garage and I loved the flexibility of loading kickstart from disk. (it stayed resident and only needed doing on power up). Much cooler looking machine than the 500 too IMHO....

BTW why no PET on the list - both the PET and Apple were shown at CES but the PET actually beat the Apple II to market...Hell it was even shown in Startrek II.... :-D  :-D

[Hyperspeed]

by jdiffend:
Think 1980. A Pocket computer when there weren't many desktop computers.
The Portfolio was kinda neat but came 9 years later.

Just what use could you have for a tiny machine with 1.5k of RAM and a 24 character display?

I thought the Atari Portfolio was basic but these old Radio Shack things take the biscuit!

How did they interface with reality? They're a bit like the moles of the computing world!

:lol: