fastxfurious
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Does a computer become vintage after 10 years, 20 years etc.
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When does a computer really become vintage.
- Thread starter fastxfurious
- Start date
Caluser2000
Banned
This question gets asked quite often. There is no correct answer.
ZenHacker
Member
The date that I personally set is 1995. After that point, computers ceased to be interesting and unique.
In 10 years time, someone will be saying 'The date that I personally set is 2005. After that point, computers ceased to be interesting and unique.'
krebizfan
Veteran Member
The moment the computer stops being taxed as an asset but is instead taxed as an investment.
SomeGuy
Veteran Member
Without wasting too many words, "vintage" is not back or white. (It's beige or woodgrain! ). Everything, even new stuff, has _A_ vintage. With computers, the categories tend to revolve around major functionality or production changes (such as 8088/286/386/486 CPUs, systems with ISA, systems with real FDCs, etc). They aren't typically thought of as "vintage" until they become hard to find, and often being sought after for functional, educational, or nostalgic reasons.
). Everything, even new stuff, has _A_ vintage. With computers, the categories tend to revolve around major functionality or production changes (such as 8088/286/386/486 CPUs, systems with ISA, systems with real FDCs, etc). They aren't typically thought of as "vintage" until they become hard to find, and often being sought after for functional, educational, or nostalgic reasons.
1ST1
Veteran Member
Age, brand name, unique feature, design, rare system, brings own memory to the time back. That's what I am interested in.
Trixter
Veteran Member
In 10 years time, someone will be saying 'The date that I personally set is 2005. After that point, computers ceased to be interesting and unique.'
Exactly this.
My personal definition is $CURYEAR-20.
Scali
Veteran Member
Yes, for me personally, the fun of these old machines is to develop software for/on them, simply because they are so different to develop for than today's machines.
You have to think about problems that simply do not occur on modern machines at all. And that's what makes them interesting to me: if you are creative enough, you can make them do things that were once believed to be impossible.
kb2syd
Veteran Member
About 3 days after you finally get rid of your last one...
rittwage
Veteran Member
Agree. 20 years.
My guess is when someone decides to preserve them because they are representative of the technology from the era they were produced in. For any collection to thrive, there must be enthusiasts that can recognize features or relevance of an item to the period it was made in.
ZenHacker
Member
In 10 years time, someone will be saying 'The date that I personally set is 2005. After that point, computers ceased to be interesting and unique.'
What I mean is, personal computers before the mid 90s were diverse and had a range of different operating systems. After about 1995 pretty much all we had were Macs and IBM PC clones.
I get the idea where you think it's an end of an era, however there are technologies and software within the Mac and PC realm that are no longer in use or reminiscent of that time period. Colorado tape drives, ZIP drives, Jazz disks, LS-120's, and CD drives with proprietary interface cards are good examples, as well as motherboards that lack integrated sound or video. That opens the door to further collecting of storage devices and associated media, various video and sound cards, scsi controllers, and the occasional oddball device, like the Torisan CD drive with a 3 CD changer cartridge.