Re:Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?
by albertkoz on Thursday July 22, 2021 @09:53PM
(#27926416)
Thanks! I acquired my first vintage Mac couple months ago (two Macintosh Classic) and I was very surprised with the machines. I think I need to look more into what was possible. Thank you for the ideas, I will definitely look into getting another early Mac computer.
Re:Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?
by drewzero1 on Friday July 23, 2021 @03:43PM
(#27934817)
The Macintosh Classic is my favorite compact Mac, even if the SE/30 was technically miles ahead. The Classic looks the best (in my '90s-biased opinion) and is the only one that has a working operating system in ROM, which I think is pretty cool. I traded a Mac SE (FD800) for mine and haven't looked back.
I also really enjoy the LC line, especially the pizza box form factor. They have similar styling to the Classic but have a color monitor, and still don't take up much space. There was also an Apple][-on-a-card that could plug into an LC's expansion port and allow it to run Apple ][ software... I haven't tracked one of those down yet, but I see them come up occasionally.
Re:Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?
by smackeyacky on Friday July 23, 2021 @02:02AM
(#27927696)
Maybe look for a macintosh ii, big desktop case and some were able to run a unix variant. Otherwise the SE30 was the ducks nuts of the classic macs.
My favorite classic Macs are the ones with color screens and CD-ROM drives. The multimedia possibilities really start to open up! I have a Performa 575[1] that was just about perfect for this, but it suffered a fall in storage that shattered the case. If it ends up being a total loss I'm going to start looking for a Power Mac 5200[2] which is better looking and can run early PowerPC applications.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_LC_500_series [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_5200_LC