[jnaina]

Have 2 Apple ][e, Lisa, Apple NeXT Cube, Fat Mac 512K, Mac IIci, Mac LC and an Apple Xserve, as part of my Apple collection. Along with Sinclair ZX81 and an Atari 800. Many decades of collecting and maintaining them. Unfortunately kids are not interested in inheriting them after I'm gone, even as I have shared with the some of the great origin stories behind some of these machines. They don't see the value. Their logic is that they can always spin up an emulator and try the software, instead of keeping these old dinosaurs around.

[linguae]

I also have a collection of Macs and NeXT computers, including a Macintosh SE and a NeXT Cube. I was just a baby when these computers were being manufactured; I first learned about these computers in high school when Mac OS X was new and when I was completely taken by the idea of a Unix with a nice GUI, coming from the world of Windows 9x.

While emulators are definitely convenient (especially when living in apartments), there is something about using physical hardware from the era and appreciating their technological limits compared to modern hardware. I also feel it is beneficial for young people who weren’t around to experience these machines during their heydays to experience them, to get a feel for what computing was like and how things have changed, for better and for worse. I miss the Living Computers Museum in Seattle, which was in operation before the COVID-19 pandemic and the passing of its owner, Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft.

Also, I love my mechanical keyboards from the era! I have a few old mechanical Apple keyboards (including the legendary Apple Extended Keyboard II) and two non-ADB NeXT keyboards.

[formerphotoj]

I wish I had kept, and could still use, my brown plastic PowerBook...I forgot what model that was but...a brown laptop?!? It was soooo cool! :)

Wish you could swap innards like you can swap engines with (some) cars.