The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time (by PC World)

[Deepak]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126692-page,14-c,systems/article.html

The list is...

PC World's list of the top 25 PCs of all time was assembled after we polled our editors for nominations. We then rated the nominated gadgets for innovation, impact, industrial design, and intangibles. Here are the results. (For more on our 25 Greatest PCs project, see the full story.)

• 1977 Apple II
• 1986 Compaq Deskpro 386
• 1981 Xerox 8010 Information System
• 1986 Apple Macintosh Plus
• 1992 IBM ThinkPad 700C
• 1981 IBM Personal Computer, Model 5150
• 1985 Commodore Amiga 1000
• 1983 Tandy TRS-80 Model 100
• 1982 Columbia Data Products MPC 1600-1
• 1991 Apple PowerBook 100
• 1998 Sony VAIO 505GX
• 1975 MITS Altair 8800
• 1984 IBM Personal Computer/AT Model 5170
• 1979 Atari 800
• 2001 Shuttle SV24 Barebone System
• 1977 Tandy TRS-80 Model I
• 1987 Toshiba T1000
• 1993 Hewlett-Packard OmniBook 300
• 2002 Apple iMac, second generation
• 1996 Gateway 2000 Destination
• 1998 Alienware Area-51
• 1993 Hewlett-Packard 100LX
• 1997 Apple eMate 300
• 2006 Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650
• 1982 Non-Linear Systems Kaypro II

 

[digitalwanderer]

Where is the VIC-20?!?!

 

[Deepak]

Digi, some near greatest PCs are also in a separate list. You can read the entire article (in a single page) here...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060811/tc_pcworld/126692

 

[The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy]

I would have thought the Mac should collect top hours, it's lineage introduced the world to windowed operating systems, proper 32-bit RGBA colour and a 32-bit expansions bus to name a few while the PC world were still learning to bash each other with bones before a mysterious black obelisk...

 

[RussSchultz]

I scoff at their leaving the C64 off the greatest list. Near greatest is not good enough.

Its certainly more useful having it on the greatest list than the 10 different PC clones they have on there.

 

[INKster]

They squeezed Apple eMate 300 in there, and totally forgot Sinclair Spectrum ?

 

[Geo]

Apple ][! Woot!

Made my first professional computer bucks jockeying one of those.

 

[Tim Murray]

That Amiga is not nearly high enough!

 

[nelg]

Where is my old ALR Flex Cache 386 ?

 

[mito]

sinclair zx spectrum is missing.

 

[Cowboy X]

That list somewhat loses its credibility with the C64 and Vic 20 missing .

 

[nutball]

Hello? BBC Micro? Ah yes, it wasn't sold in the US so it doesn't count

 

[DudeMiester]

I don't know how you can have a 2006 computer in that list, as it hasn't had the time to prove it's greatness.

 

[Basic]

I don't know how you can have a 2006 computer in that list, as it hasn't had the time to prove it's greatness.

And not only a 2006 computer, it's a 10.1 pound "notebook".

 

[Cowboy X]

The problem I see here is how they define greatness . In some cases they make it clear that it has nothing to do with firsts or neccesarily being cutting edge , but having a great impact on the industry and the way things are done or percieved . What is interesting is that in other situations some on their list seem to be there strictly for technical reasons or being first , including computers released this year which obviously have had no time to be great influences yet . Some computers only meet some of the criteria they set and some which meet all are left out .Because of the differences in their criteria in practice computers like the C64 and Vic 20 are not on the list , what is however very funny is that they shuld have made it on for all possible reasons , massive impact , good technology and of course plenty were sold .

 

[DudeMiester]

Well the biggest impact that particular laptop had was when some reporter mistakening thought that the demo version only had a DVD drive.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I agree that with the Vic 20 and C64 being left off thats a bit a joke. Also while back in the day OEM computers were the best, I think you can custom build much nicer ones yourself. At least with desktop computers anyways. I personally cant stand OEM computers, bloody rubbish(the vast majority that is peddled in shops here.)

Notice no computers like ENIAC(sp?) either?

 

[RussSchultz]

Notice no computers like ENIAC(sp?) either?

The list is "personal computers", so that's forgiveable.

 

[Hanners]

That Amiga is not nearly high enough!

Indeed. And why the 1000?

 

[drpepper]

Hooray Apple!