I've been reading about the history of the development of the Internet lately and it got me to thinking about refrigerator-sized computers of the late '60s, mainframes, and even the first PCs connecting to nascent networks.
It led me to consider buying an ancient PC just to mess around with it, and in that regard, I wondered who among us has the oldest working machine and what they use it for. [Reply]
I moved a month ago and threw away a Dell I got right out of college in 2004. It worked just well enough to use remote desktop for my work computer, so I actuualy did get use out of it all the way until the end. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
I'm ~90% sure I have a Commodore 64 packed away somewhere that "should" still work. Not sure what it would work for, but still.
It is only fifteen years old or so, but it is a unique computer that didn't really catch on, but I used it daily for 5 years until the surface pro came out and I still use it on occasion if I have a legacy file that needs some old tool or driver. This was a fully functioning desktop operating system in a handheld computer with a stylus touch screen and a thumb operated keyboard way before most companies were thinking about any of those things.
Or it was functional when i put in storage in my garage a few years back. Scored 2 of them and a bunch of games from my old science teacher when i was about 13 years old. Still have it.
I still have the Macintosh SE FDHD I bought in 1989 or so. I fired it up for the first time in over 25 years a month or two ago and it still works, although I found that my ADB mouse is jacked up. That's a real shocker, haha. It's probably just hopelessly filled with lint.
It was the first computer I bought new. Before that, I bought a used Commodore 64 from Neil Armstrong's son, Rick, back when he was a dolphin trainer whose dolphins performed at Worlds of Fun in the summers.