[LurkinHawk]

No way the Vic20 belongs in the list. I buffed mine up to 40k Ram, added an assembly language cart. We used it for convention registration (1200 attendees) and accounting. An engineer friend wowed us all with the things a few lines of assembler could do. Used it to animate a pumpkin display at Hallowe'en (lots of flashing lights, crashing thunder and spooky noises!).Best of all, was amused every time I entered a transit car at Atlanta (Hartsfield) Airport, knowing each car was controlled by a Vic20... "Please move to the center of the vehicle and away from the doors!"

[Rabscuttle]

Having endured working in Packard Bell tech Support for a year (to the day) back in 95-96, I can attest that if I can fix that brick, I can fix anything... Those Aztech modem/sound cards weren't much better then putting 10 pounds of land-fill in the system... I once told a new customer to read the name on the front of the box and he then read off "Packard Bell" and I said, "well, there's your problem - just take it back and buy a Compaq."Our #1 fix for nearly everything: "fdisk, format and restore".... what wretched systems...PS: Randy Roadkill is the nickname given to the Packard Bell logo

[Larusco]

Imagine my suprise that the PC World recommended Dell 4600 made the list of all-time worst computers. Yes, my power supply went out. Other than that this has been a great machine that is now 4 years old and running Vista with no problems other than the usual moving to a new system glitches.Opinions are like x, everyone has one but they all stink. Be careful who you listen to, almost everyone in PC journalism changes their mind about every other week.

[carlsson]

VIC-20 doesn't belong there. Yes, it had little memory even for its time, and not the best resolution on the market, but it was also much cheaper than its competitors when it was released. Over time, other brands catched up. I strongly question the editor's choice of words when he writes that it did not deserve to be beloved. Who decides who or what deserves to be beloved? :evil:Texas TI-99/4 also doesn't belong on the list. Yes, it was quite overpriced and has some technical bottlenecks (to reduce cost and get the machine on the market, if I understood correctly). But it was released in 1979, competing next to Atari 800. Perhaps the Atari gave you much more value for money, but being second best at a time in history shouldn't deserve you to be called one of the worst ever. Would you pick whoever ended up in second place in 100 meter running in the Olympic Games, say 1968, to be one of the ten worst sprinters through time? No, I don't think so neither.I'm wondering why IBM PCjr was excluded from the list. That seems like a failed attempt from IBM to get into the home computing business. You have Coleco Adam, but where is Mattel Aquarius? Or do you consider that one to be more of a video game than a computer? Some other fairly odd and collectable beasts that technically could be questioned include Comx-35 (Dutch/Hong Kong) and Colour Genie (HK), the latter so full of bugs that reviewers got frustrated already in 1983. How about the Amiga 600, a model I never understood the need for despite being an Amiga fan myself. I'm sure if I move forwards in time and include all kinds of more or less failed PC clones with custom chipsets, I could mention a handful more systems who appeared worse in their day than both the VIC-20 and TI-99/4 did. I can't speak for the Apple /// though.Now, I would like to see the same editor make a list of the ten best computers through time, maybe in a future issue if it hasn't already been done. Please consider machines ranging back as far as you want, at least from 1975 and motivate wisely what made them great.

[AmericanHawk]

"following the disastrous PCjr (#13 on our list of the all-time worst products)...."So it was one of the 13 worst products of all time, but didn't even make the top ten worst PCs of all time? How does that work? None of the PCs listed here were ranked 'higher' on that list, so, logically, the PCjr should be #1 here, too.

[russelllindsey]

I owned both a 1994 Packard Bell and a 2003 Dell Dimension Desktop. I couldn't agree more. Fortunately for me and my family, I now have a fiance who loves to build custom computers, and knows what he is doing. I love the desktop that he built for me, and the used laptop I bought off of E-Bay. I've had more luck with both than either of the two lemons mentioned above. Bye Bye Dell tech support!

[pedenster]

The TI994/A was ahead of it's time. Once it was hacked it could do just about anything a PC of that time could do including using a hard drive. It was able to receive color images from another turkey "The Source." It was done in by the 64K IBM more than anything. Great leaning cartridges for kids and expensive. Even Bill Cosby could save the system. And you forgot about the Kaypro that was kind of a desk top since it was to big to lug around. It used to just about melt floppys left in the drive.

[jjdavis]

Hey, I owned the eMachines eTower 366c, and it worked like a champ for at least 7 years serving me then my kids well.

[Fritzr]

Another vote to remove the VIC-20 from the list. This is a machine I still use. Currently have 3 in working order including the first one I bought in 1984.This machine was the first to have color & HiRes graphics to hit the home market.For those defending the TI-99/4A. It had the potential of being a great machine, but it's designers tried to use a 16bit CPU to build an 8 bit computer. The internal memory interface was a technical nightmare & due to design this machine was a lot slower than what the CPU was capable of. Then they gave it the highest price tag of any home system at the time. It was literally designed to fail.Though it is my very first computer I will nominate the TS-1000 (The American version of the Sinclair ZX-81 with an expanded 2k of RAM built in). Perhaps the entire ZX 8x family. ZX-80 (1k RAM, screen blanked while processing) ZX-81 (1k RAM, upgraded OS) TS-1000 (ZX-81 with 2k RAM) TS-1500 (ZX-81 with 16k RAM and real 'chiclet' keyboard) All but the 1500 used the membrane keyboard. It's claim to fame was that it was the first computer available for under $100 ... I paid $99+SHAfter learning to program on a TS-1000, I was in seventh heaven when I got my first VIC. There was a huge amount of RAM available for programs on the VIC, 3.5k for BASIC & 1.5k for use by the video system. A big step up from the TS-1000 2k shared by BASIC and the video display. Even wound up writing a symbolic assembler that runs on the unexpanded VIC to make it easier to code the short ML patches that Commodore made so easy to install. The C-64 just started the trend to bloatware :P

[renato]

VIC 20 was the little brother of C64 and a very good machine at the time. Although a little underpowered with memory, you could get good games or memory expansion in cartriges. There was also support for both casette, disk drive, joystick and printer. I think it was a good machine. High resolution graphics with color and all. If it had not been for the VIC 20, there would have been no C64, no Amiga and, well.. a lot less interest in PC's.A nominee from my side would be the "New Brain". It was an expensive machine, had no graphics, and as far as I remember it was black and white.Other computers I used were BBC, Dragon 32 and Sharp 700 and 800. I think they all did their job rather well.

[Sticky]

How easy we forget the chiclet keyboard. I would have thought the PC Jr would be the junker of all time.

[thuff]

What!? The Tandy line of junk didn't get a mention! : )

[weowens]

How about a AMSTRAD? In the late 80's. It had no hard drive, 64K ram ans duel 51/4 floppys. It would do a address book and thats about all

[Nonowt]

I did a similar list on my UK web site in 1995 and came up with the following;-AQUARIUS (nobody's star sign)Sqidgy keys made a come back as did a tiny memory and appalling games.SORD M5 (couldn't cut it)Invaded from Japan on its own before MSX and failed just as miserably.ACE (a low card)No colour, funny keyboard and an unconventional language (Forth) made this a sure-fire flop.ADAM (a crab apple)A powerful machine derived from the Colecovision games console, included good sound and graphics and a printer. Supported by about four pieces of software, but not supported by the public.DRAGON 64 (turned everyone green)A beefed up Dragon 32 designed to turn the ailing machine around, retained the unique 'green-look' graphics. Dragon's accountants turned green too.ENTERPRISE (boldly went...)Tried hard, spent lots of money on promotion, good sound and graphics. Looked like a halibut but still sank like a stone.MEMOTECH (red hot)Great machine, looked strong, compatible with lots of things, got great reviews. Sold well, I am told, in the Slavic countries. Went into the red money-wise and then down the plughole.LYNX (cat with nine lives)A powerful, quasi-business machine but with software like 'Oh Mummy!'. Relaunched repeatedly but never made the big time.SINCLAIR QL (Clive's bridge to far)With its SuperBasic and a suite of four 'serious' applications it should have swept the world. Instead this and the C5 Electric Car (?) were the straws which finally broke Sir Clive's back.MSX (the great invasion)And finally, who can forget (what do you mean you've never heard of it?) when a committee of the greatest computer minds of Japan got together to make the unified MSX system which would sweep the world. By the time any of the computers arrived on the scene they were obsolete. Definitely not one of the Japanese best ideas!So you see there really is nothing new...:P :P :P :P :P:oops: Ooops, it's still on there so there is also nothing new on my web site...:oops:Softy Nonowt[url]http://www.nonowt.com_ - Another Sinclair Spectrum Site (or Timex 1000 to you Americans.... :D )

[timapril7]

Great Article!Oh, the memories some of these bring. Not all good though HAHA.i still have a working (with all the 5 1/2 inch floppies) Apple IIe that should be on the greatest of all time list. After the Apple III, I thought Apple would not survive...

[cajunrebel]

I have owned 2 PBs and they gave me no problems. I then moved to HP and have nothing but praise for them. My granddaughter is still using my old HP (WIN ninety eight) which is 7 years old. I, of course, moved up to XP HP and it is 4 years old and no problems at all with it. I did have to get a new monitor for my granddaughter. Sometimes I think it's all in what you try to put into them. I have an 80G HD and it's half full so you can see I do use it for other programs I have added. Sorry had to spell win ninety eight cuz the eight gave me an icon :D

[terp66]

Most people only remember the Apple /// as a terrible system because of the heat problem, but the OS did things that not even Windows XP does. It could name a drive or disk (remember 5.25" disks?) and you could programitacally address the disk. For example, if you asked for file Backup0326myfile and you had a different disk, for example Backup0312myfile inserted, it will get the file. Still can't do that with Windows.Don

[DangerousDave]

Thank you! My Atari 800 WASN'T on the list!! I remember the rest, though. They caused a number of arguments at work about who had the best 8-bit machines on the market; Atari, Commodore, TI, Co-Co (Radio Shack), or just who!! I don't think anyone really won!!

[tron478]

[/b]{size:18px}[/size]well I had a hp that I bought and I had it till just recently when we had a bad ice storm and a power wire came down and shorted everything out and burned up my power supply and motherboard but anyway I had my first computer for over 10 years which was a hp 733mhz upgraded it to a 866mhz maxed it all out and the only thing I had to replace was the cd burner while under warranty otherwise I have had no problems at all with it at all now I just bought a Dell 3.4 gig dual core processor with 2 gig of ram 19 inch flat panel and a g-force 7100 video card and a dvd-rw drive and I have not had any problems with it yet

[a155mm]

I was working at a distributor as a bench tech when we started carrying PB's. They were one of many brands and no one payed much attention. That changed when customers wanted configuration changes.:evil:Once you took the cover off it was a whole new ball game. They usually had an internal "case" for some reason and it was stamped together at the top. Once you separated the pieces you had no way to put them back together without glue.No two had the same color coding and it was a crap shoot as to what sort of drive mounts, power connectors etc. you would encounter. Tech support wouldn't talk to you unless you could give them the serial number off of the hard drive. They used those numbers to track which run of *t parts a given model came from. I finished grad school nine months after we got them and they were the subject of a paper I wrote about fraud and deception in the industry. No one believed me until they started showing up on campus. :mrgreen: