Every now and then, a computer comes along that makes a mark, that sets a trend, or that simply stuns you - but not because of its internals, its processor or its software, but because of its appearance. Through the history of computing, there have been a number of computers that were actually designed to appeal not just because of raw technology alone, but also because of stunning looks. Read on for a countdown of my ten most beautiful computers.
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SGI Indigo - http://www.sgizone.net/indigo/
NeXT Station instead of NeXT Cube
IBM RS/6000 workstation instead of PS/2 Model 50
Cray supercomputer
Apple iMac (current models)
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I second the Cray supercomputers, they were beautifully designed, and so powerful even the geekiest of us would sweat in its presence.I used to request info packets as a young'n from cray, under the alias of "lynsing medical research center" so they would even send it. ahhh those were the days 
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At first, judging by title, I thought this is going to be a "These are ten Apple computers I really like" but I'm happy to see at least some diversity.
In my book, hardware design is a non-issue, it can literally be wrapped in tinfoil for all I care, how it performs is key for me. That must be why I never used and probably will never use an Apple product.
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I am too am typing this from my IBM model M PS/2 keyboard. It is 19 years old.
I bought with an IBM PS/2 30/286 when I was a grad student and got the student discount. I regretted not hanging on till a 386 system got into my price range. It came with PC-DOS 4.0 which was later upgraded to Win 3.1 on MSDOS 6. Some parts were well built others were not as good the hard drive bjorked in less than a year, fortunately still in warranty. The monitor lasted seven years and the system was still running after nine years, when I upgraded to a cheap secondhand 486.
The keyboard however lasts forever being now on its fifth system.
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Absolutely.
I'm by no means an IBM fan, but the Thinkpads, especially the X-series, are simply amazing examples of beautiful ugliness - and I mean that last noun in a good way.
I'm afraid only people that have actually used/owned a Thinkpad will be able to appreciate that. The fact that you cannot usually see Thinkpads in stores on shelves plays a role in that, I guess.
A big mistake Thom, and I have no idea why you didn't consult me
is to include the Macbook Air, I was very unimpressed having seen it here last week. Plus, its design is just way too fresh to be able to judge it. iBooks, especially the later 12" models, beat the crap out of the McB Air in the looks department; as a matter of fact, Apple is not going to produce a nicer laptop in the next decade. It's not as light, but at least it has a real keyboard that says, type me!
So Thom, get the hell out of your blogging chair, get yourself a Thinkpad at eBay and repair this missed opportunity.
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I agree. Though I would not call necissarily use the world ugly. The Thinkpad is simply a more industrial design. Where as the Mac is more of a Bukakki of modern deco. Both are stunning examples of art and engineering intertwined. I personally am not a big fan of where the Apple laptop line is heading. The old PowerBooks, and the Titanium were Art at its finest. The Air... more like a flat egg. I think Apple hired the same guys who push VW. Just because it screams different doesn't mean its pretty. And while the air is smooth and thin, it's rather plain in appearance. Apple needs to bring out the beast in their boxes. I want something that a man who has worked his entire life to accumulate would want to own. It's what I expect from them. IF they want to build the Lamborgini of laptops, don't design it like a V-Dub.
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True, I wanted to use the word ugly in a good way, which I guess is a bit hard in modern English. There was (is?) a Dutch architect though who advocated "beautiful ugliness" in architecture.
Yeah I was wondering if I was the only one who thought the Macbooks are a step back compared to the Powerbooks and iBooks.
I liked the 12" Powerbook best but given absence of money, got mslf an iBook. Amazing machine.
The Macbooks are relatively cheap-looking, with their bright screen and awful keyboard. Hell, there are Sony Vaios that look better.
Okay I admit my opinion is sort of completely irrelevant.
But as you said, the direction Apple's design is heading, I would not buy any Apple stuff again. There's more explicit bling now, more form over function. I mean, you just don't toss a great keyboard like the iBook's out of the Cupertino window. Why not improve it and make it a classic like the Thinkpad's, in stead of producing something that looks "new" but is.. crap.
I mean, does Apple remember that in spite of the popularity of mouse clicking and "multitouch" goodness, some people actually type?
Plus, Apple's PC design (I'm not into the ipod/phone dep.) has become less playful and more.. "serious". As in, serious business, maybe. That's a bad sign in design, believe me. Like the new iMacs, they look a lot more "don't touch me" than the funny white plastic types.
Agreed.
BTW hey Apple fans, this is free speech y'all.
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I owned an iBook and a new MacBook. The MacBook's keyboard blows away the iBook's in every way. The MacBook's keyboard is the best laptop keyboard I have ever used and I've had Dell, Thinkpads, HP, and Toshiba's. The iBook's keyboard was horrible. Half the time my finger would catch on the key above the one I was hitting causing the keys to pop off!!
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Yes, Thinkpads are excellent examples of the design rule that, form should follow function. E.g. look at the lid that closes very tightly and make the construction more rigid when closed. On off buttons is placed at places where you are unlikely to press them by mistake, not like the HP I use for work, that I turn off by mistake on a regular basis.
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I brought a Mac Cube for 25 euros from my work place, thought it would be a nice fileserver etc. It only draws 35 watts when idle and is fan less. The show stopper was that it is not "noise less", the hard drive makes a whining sound. Now it is sitting at the top of a shelf in my living room just looking good (?).
I'm thinking about changing the drive to a silent one, maybe a flash-based. Has anyone tried that?
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It is a silly question! But a lot of the mods are with "old" hardware. I'm just lazy and want to have a quick fix! :-) I'll give it an other honest google-session.
I think I've seen the aquarium, it is excellent! :-)
(I think I also seen a toilet paper dispenser, but that is just plain wrong!)
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Well, even the SGI Octane has been modded into an audio system, as far as I remember, called the "Roctane". By the way, the "old" Octane (predecessor of the O2 mentioned in the article) looks great, too. Well, has SGI ever built any boring looking systems? :-)
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The thing that stands out from the IBM machines of that era was the complete screwless FRU (field-replaceable-unit) nature of the machines.
Nearly everything in the machine could be pulled and replaced without a screwdriver. In some cases, there was even a little plastic removal tool clipped into place inside the case for popping out plastic pins or whatever.
I always loved that.
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much are quite ugly
what about the tezro http://www.sgi.com/products/remarketed/tezro/
the Cray's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray
the thinking machines ? http://bradley.csail.mit.edu/~bradley/cm5/
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Not all of the standards that IBM attempted to introduce with the PS/2 architecture were enduring. The PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors had quite a long life, but the PS/2 also tried to introduce a non standard case and the MCA expansion architecture. They also introduced a unique display standard that was a superset of VGA. I seem to remember that some of the line even had ESDI hard drives.
For the laptop, I would have thought you'd have gone for the iBook.
It might seem like heressy to say this on OSNEWS, but I've never really liked the look of the BeBox. Probably because it looks like most of my computers in that it's mis-matched.
Another nice looking and forward thinking design was that of the Acorn RISC PC. It was a fanless and screwless plastic case. It was also extensible, through the addition of extra "slices". You could have up to four slices in order to build a cube, if you needed to.
It also came with a set of clips so that you could stand it on its side as a tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Acorn_Risc_PC_600.jpg
Also, how could have missed off the one-box classic macs? ;-)
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Seconding that RiscPC (or the Amiga "Walker" design), with the expandable case. THAT is sheer genius. Get enough of those together and yeah, you've got a tower... but you can because they all slot on top of each other.
I dunno, I'm also a fan of those old all-in-keyboard design computers, particularly the ones with more than just a keyboard on the top (disk drive, as in the C65, some SORD computers with two built-in 5 1/4"...)
If I had the money, time and know-how I'd love to put together (or gut and make) a modern system like those, except now the floppy would be a DVD-RW DL, and the cartridge slots would be Compactflash or SD...
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Easy, BeBox, SGI Indigo, NeXT stations, the Cray Supercomputers (round bench seat) in no special order.
Of course many of the Macs all the way back to 84. The MacII was my favorite of the day, 6 slots to expansion heaven if you had the money and very solid industrial engineering.
I might even add the BBC2 models, all in one box and beautiful for its day even on the software side. Wouldn't mind seeing that format again.
By definition almost all todays PC cases are ugly, esp the gaming cases coming out of Taiwan, they reek of teenage hormones. Now if some of the PC makers would just copy Apple style, the situation might improve.
I have to conclude that good looking computers tend to be the least expandable on the inside, usually locked out. Once you expand with lots of external USB widgets, they don't look so cool anymore.
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I think the current gen iMac should have been on that list:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/9475/imacalumyy1.jpg
OTOH, I think the BeBox *didn't* deserve to be there! I mean, sure it is an important/significant model in computing/OS history but this is the "The Ten Most *Beautiful* Computers" and the Be-box looks as ugly as any cheap random case.
Edited 2008-04-13 19:55 UTC
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That's just your opinion, which is just as worthless as my opinion
. This wasn't just the "The Ten Most *Beautiful* Computers" list. It was my "The Ten Most *Beautiful* Computers" list. Which is quite different.
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I know Thom considers the Mac Mini to be ugly, as he said in the G4 Cube entry in the article, but I don't see how it's much different from the Cube in overall design. Slot loading, very small footprint, (nearly) silent, with rounded corners and a smooth overall appearance. The only thing I ever found "ugly" about it was video performance.
To each his own I guess.
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I'm sure it was, I took apart my old G4 Mini not long after I got it to up the RAM and it was a very touchy procedure. I didn't like the idea of shoving two metal putty knives into a $600 computer, but I did it right and didn't break anything. I wouldn't want to do it again though; even my eMac was easier to upgrade, and I had to take it halfway apart to add a bigger hard drive.
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as on look at it, each iteration of a apple product seems to be less and less modification friendly.
about the only product of theirs that seems designed with ease of modification seems to be the mac pro...
but then im biased as i have not bought a pre-built system in ages...
ugh, just looked at the apple page and while the mac pro is more after market upgradeable then other apple products it still use what appears to be a very unusual motherboard and drive attachment system...
Edited 2008-04-14 05:22 UTC
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Someone mentioned pdp-8. It was nice. I think DEC reached the peak of that line's clean design, inside and out, with the pdp-11. Here's a nice picture:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Pdp-11-40.jpg
Have to second the Cray. Kept expecting that to be #1. Couldn't believe that was left off.
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Continuing the theme of grand old boxen, let's have some love for Olivetti's 1960s industrial design:
Ettore Sottsass's ELEA 9003:
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/3249/expladonationettoresottsass...
Mario Bellini's TCV 250 terminal:
http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/00043077.jpg
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A very round concept. :-)
http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/00043077.jpg
Holborn terminal:
http://www.computermuseumgroningen.nl/holborn/terminal.jpg
ADM-5 terminal:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-content/images/hamfest06/hamfest...
Edited 2008-04-14 08:45 UTC
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Is this serious?
I was certain it must have been a big joke, but then I saw the Cube at the end and thought... hmmmm.... maybe this guy just has absolutely bizarre taste.
But, if this was a serious article, then it is flawed. It misses out the best designed computer ever... the one I'm writing this on right now:
G4 iMac
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The RiscPC was definately a classic, not many computers were built with their own Pizza ovens.
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~r_high/memorial/rocketship.html
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Any list about good looking computers that does not have the Commodore Amiga 1000 on it should be automatically discredited.
The A1000 was the finest looking computer released up to that date. Why other manufacturers never embraced the keyboard garage is beyond me.
Apple has since took the design ball and ran with it (to their credit), although the Dell XPS is an interesting looking computer...
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The A1000 was the finest looking computer released up to that date. Why other manufacturers never embraced the keyboard garage is beyond me.
Apple has since took the design ball and ran with it (to their credit), although the Dell XPS is an interesting looking computer...
Any person's opinion should be automatically discredited when they find the Dell XPS beautiful
.
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Nice to see the PS2 in that list, it's a very nice looking system... It's development kit counterpart (the T10k) looks equally cool too, which is rare.
I think the Sharp X68000 ( http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~xn68000/Computing/Oldies/X68000/index.htm... ) is another nice looking computer which is rarely mentioned
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interesting case, but that mouse reminds me of the "puck"...