Computer museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A computer museum is a collection of vintage computer hardware and software. Computer museums are rarely physical museums, but rather personal collections owned by retrocomputing hobbyists. Many computer museums are freely available to view publicly online through websites. Computers often found in computer museums include Apple IIs, older Apple Macintoshes, Commodore International's, Amigas, IBM PCs and more rare computers such as the Osborne 1.
The largest computer museum in the world is the Computer History Museum, which preserve and present the computing revolution and its impact on the human experience. The Computer History Museum have the largest number of exhibits and collections of any other computer museum. Most public computer museums include the Apple I and Altair 8800 as exhibits.
Computer museum websites are widely popular because they document a large number of computers. The most popular is old-computers.com, first opened online in 1996. As of 2006, it includes 935 computers, 84 consoles and 98 pongs. However, old-computers.com is missing many vintage systems such as the Macintosh Classic from 1990.
Microsoft have their own computer museum at their headquarters which is open to the public, and at one time Apple Computer also had a museum open to the public.
[edit] Some computer museums
This list is incomplete. See also Category:Computer museums.
- American Computer Museum, the oldest currently operating one
- Computer History Museum, the largest
- DigiBarn Computer Museum in Boulder Creek, California
- Rhode Island Computer Museum
- The Boston Computer Museum closed in 1999, and does not have its own article here
- Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Computer History Museum
- Old-computers.com
- Obsolete Computer Museum
- San Diego Computer Museum
- Collection of old digital and analog computers
- HeinzNixdorf MuseumsForum — the world biggest Computer Museum in Paderborn (Germany)
- Old computers and game consoles Finland
- Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada