There are a lot of embedded systems we see running everything from factory machinery to POS systems, to ATMs (can you say OS/2 Warp) that use these old components. Most aren't Internet connected so no one ever worried about service packs or end of life on software and often it is far cheaper to source parts than forklift out these old systems. We just had someone asking for 80MB yes, "MB" drives for an HP system. Apparently these things are the size of a file cabinet drawer and run on 220V, at least they aren't water cooled...

Actually, I'd suggest a Mac Mini circa 2005-2007 earliest generation of Intel-based product, running 10.6 or 10.7 of the Mac OS. For $100-150 ebay prices, you can get a perfectly useful OS-X platform (which is very similar to a Linux OS but with a bunch of user-friendliness layered on top) and 1 GB of RAM is perfectly sufficient to run as a more than decent web browser.

As I personally just transitioned to the Mac ecosystem (one of Microsoft's overnight involuntary upgrades that trashed my system and forced me to do a total re-build was the last straw that prompted this), I am in the process of moving my elderly mom to just such a platform since I need to support her (actually, I went a little more upscale, getting her a nice used 2 GB Core2Duo based Mac Mini for about $220 on the 'bay). I' actually using it right now as I am configuring it for her to be as similar to the MS Win 7 desktop that she is used to. And the thing is more than competent as an internet computer for any non-power user.

Yeah, I took that screenshot before I cleared out their temporary files. I can't remember exactly how much it cleared up, but it was somewhere around 20% of the hard drive. I'm pretty sure that was the first time their temporary internet files had ever been cleared.

For a real antique, I am flying home with one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_PX-8_Geneva


Was my dad's, then a hand-me down I used in my first couple of years of high school, before getting a 286 laptop running DOS/Windows 3.x ... has sat unused in storage at my mom's for about 22-23 years.

Mine is quite the bit worse for wear; the RAMdisk/modem module is missing as are several keys. When I get in, will post a picture for comparison and when time permits, I will be checking through my junk box for a 6V AC adapter to see if it still runs at all.

Amazing battery life; ran 6-8 hours on the internal battery pack (4 nicads, very similar to what you'd see on some of the chunkier cordless phone handsets a few years ago.)

Three of my old computers which I now wish I'd kept:

The Thinkpad 701C with the "butterfly keyboard" (I continue to be surprised that no one has resurrected that. It was a rock-solid keyboard):



Commodore SX-64. The "portable" [sic!] version of the C64



Tandy 102. Was very useful for downloading DUATS wx and forecasts in its day; I even figured out how to null-cable it to my PC to move old Commodore 64 documents in ascii format.

I love all the memories posted in this thread! The first computer in my household was a Kaypro 2X, bought in 1985 (Similar to this ad):



One of my earliest memories is going to a computer store in Manhattan with my dad, and him lugging this "portable" (!) computer down the street to our car. Weighed about 40 pounds, and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 (it was discounted by the point we bought it, as it was an older model).

My dad worked from home and edited many documents on it, and when he needed to collaborate with others on a project, he would send and receive the 5 1/4" floppy disks in the mail. (Or he could have used the 300 bps modem, but few people had email or BBS access in the 80s!)

We used this computer until 1993, when we upgraded to a Mac with the Prodigy online service and a 2400 bps modem. It sat in our garage until 2001, when sadly it went in the dumpster as my parents downsized from a 4-bedroom house to a small Manhattan apartment.

If I hadn't been away at college at the time, I would have saved the Kaypro as an "antique." It worked perfectly until the end, as far as I know.

My Dad gave me permission to "find a good home" for his four Kaypro 4s two years ago. Those things were rock solid.

Possibly need to replace the lithium button battery (usually a CR2032) that powers the battery-backed CMOS memory?

I've redisovered one of my oldest computer in my brother's basement storage this week, a 25 years old Amstrad PPC640 - it still boot up to MS-DOS 3.1 and use 3.5" FDD. With a 9" mono screen, it's heavy but graphics wasn't too bad hooked up to a 13" RGB amber monitor - used it for Lotus 1-2-3, Words and Condor 3 to manage membership & donor mailing lists (before dBase 3.) It was a decent setup then to access BBS and to log into Eassy Sabre (pre-Travelocity) then to do bookings and to access OAG online,modem was ok @ 2,400 bps in those days. GEnie online access was cheap and never part of the AOL generation.



The heavier tasks were done on networked Altos terminals as mainframes & were king in those days (mid 1980's) - finances were done on the IBM 370's into the mid 1990's. Anyone else remember those 11" disks used for the Wangwriter systems - some of my earliest government grants were written & saved on those diskettes, kept one for memories & another one has the resume from 1981 ... the old days.

I still use one of these on a daily basis:



http://oldcomputers.net/att-unix-pc.html

Good lord, why?

Very cool. I got to play with one (and a 3b2) in the early-mid 1990s, just after Linux was starting to come in and the Unix PC and 3b2 were technically "obsolete" and they were still enough to turn some heads.

Coupled with a good old Hayes external dial-up modem (young ones don't have a clue on those) via serial, run terminal emulation and it can talk to the remote host - surely, why not.

Looked like an old XT style keyboard before the AT/PS2 keyboards became defacto standard - got a few KB adapters sitting in the junk bin for spare parts.

Our office had Wang PCs (AT/8086's) that had 3270 cards. All of these ran without a mouse ...

Custom written software which still does the job. We have, of course, migrated most functions to modern systems. We do need to reboot a few times per year, and deal with the occasional component failure, but parts and knowledge are readily available for this particular machine which supports multi-tasking by simultaneous users.