Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes

Harry writes "Once upon a time, it wasn't a given that PC owners should be able to format their own floppy disks. Or that ports should be standard, not proprietary. Or that it was a lousy idea to hardwire a PC's AC adapter, or to put the power supply in the printer so that a printer failure rendered the PC unusable, too. Over at Technologizer, Benj Edwards has taken a look at some of the worst design decisions from personal computing's early years — including ones involving famous flops such as the PCJr, obscure failures such as Mattel's Aquarius, and machines that succeeded despite flaws, like the first Mac. In most instances — but not all — their bad decisions taught the rest of the industry not to make the same errors again."

Comments

Re:Apple's fascination with single button mice

[AKAImBatman]

Having to press a key on the keyboard and click has got to be the most entertaining solution I have seen as 'good' in a long time.

Mod parent down. The desktop machines have a right mouse button while the laptops allow you to place a second finger on the trackpad and click for a right click. The latter is such a nice solution that I now loathe to reach for the right button on PC laptops.

I never realized how non-ergonomic right mouse buttons on trackpads were until I didn't have to do it anymore. ;-)