What's your favorite computer of all time?

[sanddrag]

I really like the Macintosh Color Classic. What computer is your favorite of all time? (stock off the shelf, not custom).

[Mr. Lim]

20th Anniversay Macintosh...

If it was good enough for the BatCave, it's good enough for me.

http://tam.axon.net/

-SlimBoJones...

[Koko Ed]

The computer that does not take a half-life to boot up, that has programs that do not crash constantly and are actually helpful with a fast internet connection that blocks out spyware and pop ups without disabling the ability to freely surf the net.
In other words this computer exists in Fantasyland.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Dude Koko Ed, that sounds like a Linux computer, really.... Ahem. Politics/Religion aside.... I really liked my first computer. A PCjr, but hey, it was nifty. Then some random 386s, 486s, and Pentiums running DOS. I had way too much fun tweaking things to get my games to run better.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Apple IIe

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I really like the Macintosh Color Classic. What computer is your favorite of all time? (stock off the shelf, not custom).

Well, if you think about it a custom computer is off the shelf, just many shelves. In that case it'd be my server runs nearly 24/7 with no problems.

But other than that I would say one of our many color computers. turn it on and its on then tell it what to do.

-Mike

[OneAngryDaisy]

As sucky as it was, and even though it only had one function, I gotta go with the Apple Newton emate 300. So pretty, so bulky, and so... useless? you couldn't do anything but love it.

[JonBell]

It would have to be my "Personal Mobile Tool," my Zaurus SL-6000. Linux, usb host, built in wifi, VGA screen (viewable in direct sunlight!), 400 Mhz Xscale, CF + SD... it's just so sweet With a keyboard it can pretty much replace a laptop!

[Gdeaver]

When I was a Senior in high school, I bought a a South West Technical Products computer kit. I'll never forget the pride and joy of entering the 128 byte boot strap code with toggle switches and ran my first program to add 2 numbers. I threw it out when I moved out of the house. Last year a working kit went for over 10,000$ on Ebay . To bad I'm not a pack rat

[JoeXIII'007]

Did have an AST Premium Exec Laptop, LCD Ribbon snapped, so now all the hardware is in a shoe box (No kidding). Had 4 MB RAM, 120MB HD, Floppy, removable modem, Windows 3.11, Old MS Office, etc. My most favorite(s) though would have to be either an AppleII (which I never got to play around with much) that was sitting around in a random classroom at a now torn down middle school or an IBM PC (color screen, desktop, Win 3.1, processor speed unknown, RAM unknown). ANY computer with Windows 3.1 is a favorite of mine unless it isn't working.

[JamesBrown]

I am also going to have to go with the Apple IIe Thats what we had in school till about the 4th grade

[Alan Anderson]

After much thought, considering all the various computers I have owned and used, I suddenly realized that my favorite computer of all time is the CERL PLATO system at the University of Illinois, circa 1980.

It was a dual mainframe timesharing system, designed for computer-aided instruction. The terminals were 512x512 pixel plasma graphics displays, and the keyboards had unusual keys like BACK, LAB, DATA, MICRO, and an assigment arrow that looks a little like this: <=.

It had personal notes which worked a lot like email, general notes which worked a lot like newsgroups or web forums, and "TERM-TALK" which worked a lot like instant messaging. It had multiplayer games like Empire (based on Star Trek) and Avatar (modeled after Dungeons and Dragons). There were individual terminals in many locations, small clusters of terminals in many more, and a few "classrooms" with dozens of terminals in one place. Most of the terminals were in the Champaign-Urbana area, but there were others at Kennedy-King College, and at the UI Chicago Circle Campus, and at Indiana University in Bloomington. My fiancée and I were at separate colleges and used to chat with each other over the system.

I miss PLATO. PLATO People were a great bunch to hang around with.

[dubious elise]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown and Ogre

I am also going to have to go with the Apple IIe Thats what we had in school till about the 4th grade

I'll second that, we had Apple IIe's at school until about 5th grade, but I still have mine at home and I love it to bits and pieces, even if it doesn't work. My current darling is a 700mHz eMac, because he just won't die, even after 2 years of general dorm-abuse at UW Madison

[jdhawg]

I guess it's kind of like your first "Significant Other" or first car, but your first computer will always have a special place in your heart. Mine was a Commodore VIC-20. What a great piece of work that was! 3 K of RAM with a 5 K expansion pack, cassette tapes to load programs with; just hook it up to the TV and go.

*sigh* I really miss the good old days.

[Steve W]

My first computer was an Apple 2. My favorite was the Apple IIGS. What a sweet machine. Did my first video editing and graphics on it, then copied to vcr. I now own a Mac G4 400, 2 PC's and have started working on my wife for a new dual processor Mac.