What's the worst computer you've ever encountered?
Or the worst computer you can possibly imagine?
For me, "the worst" *isn't* just one with the lowest processing power and storage, as this would inevitably lead to ENIAC and other 1940s iron.
It *isn't* something with the worst performance compared to what was on the top at the moment, as low performance is often totally justified - it allows for low price, compact size, longer battery life, compatibility with legacy software, and so on.
For me, "the worst" is something that seems to be intentionally crippled, stuff which deviates from established standards for no valid reason - changes just for the sake of changes, products that could have been done better without the need for higher technology and cost increase.
I mostly associate such products with the 90s era, and who knows, maybe it's even possible to have them all in one box?
* Celeron 266 - removed L2 cache from the processor module, impossible to have cache on the mobo, 66 MHz FSB even though it was designed for 100 MHz (virtually all these Celerons were overclockable by 50%!), effect: sometimes it was slower than its predecessor - Pentium MMX
* AMR and CNR slots - absolutely no technical reasons to have them, they just occupied space lowering the count of universal ISA/PCI slots, especially the fact they often replaced ISA slots was painful, as ISA was becoming rare and precious in that era
* softmodems, GDI-only printers, and other "soft-" hardware - OK, this not quite fits here, as their fully-hardware counterparts had to be more expensive, but still, they used to be such PITA that I just can't omit them here
* Microsoft Natural Keyboard - not only looks stupid, but also breaks the keyboard layout everybody was accustomed to, especially the variant with vertical Home/End/PageUp/Down/Delete/Insert block. Those keyboards with the three ACPI keys just above the arrows, where one would expect Delete/End/PageDown, were a very close competitor.
* Microsoft Mouse - I mean that curved mouse, which also looks stupid, and has just 2 buttons, ie. very inconvenient even for Microsoft's own Minesweeper
* Colani case - looks like a toy for children aged 0-3, absolutely no sharp edges, pretty much requires drives with special front panel, as normal ones not quite fit
* AMI Winbios - BIOS setup with GUI, needs mouse, and only some mouse types are supported, IIRC 3-button mice with Mouse Systems protocol didn't work
* Windows ME - still running on top of DOS, but with DOS artificially hidden, it's enough to patch a few bytes to get fully-functional DOS back! And there was more problems with ME. I suspect ME was intentionally broken to convince people to adopt XP, even though XP was also a major PITA.
* Microsoft Bob - the most retarded piece of software in history, and they probably seriously considered making it mainstream, argh!
* Clippy and all that stuff - just can't keep myself from doing a facepalm at that, and they carried that on for a full decade...
So, what are *your* worst computing nightmares?
Of course, feel free to choose your own criteria.
Or the worst computer you can possibly imagine?
For me, "the worst" *isn't* just one with the lowest processing power and storage, as this would inevitably lead to ENIAC and other 1940s iron.
It *isn't* something with the worst performance compared to what was on the top at the moment, as low performance is often totally justified - it allows for low price, compact size, longer battery life, compatibility with legacy software, and so on.
For me, "the worst" is something that seems to be intentionally crippled, stuff which deviates from established standards for no valid reason - changes just for the sake of changes, products that could have been done better without the need for higher technology and cost increase.
I mostly associate such products with the 90s era, and who knows, maybe it's even possible to have them all in one box?
* Celeron 266 - removed L2 cache from the processor module, impossible to have cache on the mobo, 66 MHz FSB even though it was designed for 100 MHz (virtually all these Celerons were overclockable by 50%!), effect: sometimes it was slower than its predecessor - Pentium MMX
* AMR and CNR slots - absolutely no technical reasons to have them, they just occupied space lowering the count of universal ISA/PCI slots, especially the fact they often replaced ISA slots was painful, as ISA was becoming rare and precious in that era
* softmodems, GDI-only printers, and other "soft-" hardware - OK, this not quite fits here, as their fully-hardware counterparts had to be more expensive, but still, they used to be such PITA that I just can't omit them here
* Microsoft Natural Keyboard - not only looks stupid, but also breaks the keyboard layout everybody was accustomed to, especially the variant with vertical Home/End/PageUp/Down/Delete/Insert block. Those keyboards with the three ACPI keys just above the arrows, where one would expect Delete/End/PageDown, were a very close competitor.
* Microsoft Mouse - I mean that curved mouse, which also looks stupid, and has just 2 buttons, ie. very inconvenient even for Microsoft's own Minesweeper
* Colani case - looks like a toy for children aged 0-3, absolutely no sharp edges, pretty much requires drives with special front panel, as normal ones not quite fit
* AMI Winbios - BIOS setup with GUI, needs mouse, and only some mouse types are supported, IIRC 3-button mice with Mouse Systems protocol didn't work
* Windows ME - still running on top of DOS, but with DOS artificially hidden, it's enough to patch a few bytes to get fully-functional DOS back! And there was more problems with ME. I suspect ME was intentionally broken to convince people to adopt XP, even though XP was also a major PITA.
* Microsoft Bob - the most retarded piece of software in history, and they probably seriously considered making it mainstream, argh!
* Clippy and all that stuff - just can't keep myself from doing a facepalm at that, and they carried that on for a full decade...
So, what are *your* worst computing nightmares?
Of course, feel free to choose your own criteria.
. Of all the incompatibles, it was the only one, to my knowledge, that was compatible (careful) with BIOS and DOS interrupts. For the most part anyway. So little software operated solely at those levels. It was primarily incompatible in the video subsection, which was usually the case with that group of machines. The Texas Instruments Professional was also, yet actually used a 6845 variant, the 6545 IIRC. It had 2 720k "quad" floppy drives, or 1 and a hard disk. And an especially lovely egg shell colored plastic case. The setup was godawful weird though. The motherboard was located underneath the plastic case, screwed to a steel chassis/plate thing. Just too weird. To gain access you had to pop it off of the card cage connector. Just have to see it to believe it. So bizarre. That's why mine got flakey. I kept taking it apart - I was a weird teenager (actually I was probably 20 when I acquired it). I tried to get my instructor to help me tweak a beautiful 15" Panasonic MDA compatible open frame monitor to work off it's graphics, a simple thing, but he didn't know enough. I think I payed 15$ for that monitor. Wish I still had it. A few months later I took a 2nd job for a few weeks (guarding Christmas trees) and bought an NEC Multisync II for about 600$. I have 2 2k's now, neither work I don't think. Need to dust them off and get them running again.
