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Should Pentium II/III Systems Have a Forum?

Should Pentium II/III systems have their own forum?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 66.7%

  • No

    Votes: 6 28.6%

  • Unsure

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
If you read the descriptions, you will see:

PCs and Clones = 8088 to 286 (PC/XT/AT)
Later PCs = 386 and 486

There is no reason to cram everything past 8088 into one category.
 
I did read the description. It just makes no sense to me this way.

The original PC/XT and the clones should have a dedicated forum and not be combined with the AT.

The original AT and up (286 to Pentium whatever) should then be one other forum. That's all we need.
 
It makes no sense to have one category covering 2 years and another category covering 2 decades.
 
My two cents:

In my opinion, there's a quantum leap from 286 to 386. It came from 16 to 32 bit, it can address up to 4 GB of RAM , it has improved protected mode with flat RAM space, the processor is ready for real multitasking, etc... The 486 can be viewed as an improved 386 but basically is the same architecture. So I think the current forum classification makes sense.
There was a big shift from 486 to Pentium, for the reasons we all already know. But I don't think there was such a revolution from the original Pentium through Pentium II/III. For me, it was just an evolution more than a revolution.
As a matter of organization I don't think it's efficient to have separate forums for PI and PII/II, given the questions and answers maybe wouldn't differ that much. Just an opinion. Whatever will be done, will be fine.
 
We better damn well be giving love to the AMD, Cyrix, etc chips as well. I didnt purchase a later Intel chip until work provided one. I was All in with AMD for quite a while.
 
I thought the topics included the clone CPUs and the other chips that worked similarly to the Intel chip. I considered that to be one of the reasons to include the Pentium II and III since the supercharged Pentium competitors sold at the same time were on topic.
 
The Pentium II and newer are already practically vintage (in my opinion, at least), since even many of the Pentium 4 systems are now over twenty years old or reaching that point anyway, and plus it would open up discussion of emulation of newer systems, especially since emulators such as 86Box, PCBox, and my own (soon to be re-released) Virtual Computer are now emulating at least a Pentium II and VIA Cyrix III, with PCBox even going so far as to emulate a Pentium III.

There's also the Vogons forum, but (in my experience anyway) the people here tend to be a bit more mature and well-behaved, whereas I've unfortunately received abuse from some users on Vogons for my emulator projects in the past, which is what drove me away from posting there for the time being.

EDIT: As to whether there should be a separate forum for these systems, I'm not quite sure about that - some of the Pentium II and newer systems shared much of the same internal hardware and even the same product lines as the original Pentium and Pentium MMX systems but mainly swapped out the system board (motherboard) with one that could accept Pentium II or newer CPUs, but either way I see no reason for them to be considered "off-topic" and unrelated to vintage computing since they are long obsolete now and have since been replaced by far newer and more modern architectures.
 
As one ages, the amount of "vintage" stuff appears to grow exponentially. Most of my home appliances (washer, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator) are over 30 years old. My bought-new Weller soldering gun is over 60. OTOH, my soldering iron is just barely over 40. I don't place much value on the somewhat arbitrary notion of "vintage". What's the difference between vintage and antique?
 
Chuck(G) said:
What's the difference between vintage and antique?
Click to expand...

Antiques are for appreciating; vintage is for using. IMO, anyway.

For example, we have an antique rocking chair from over a century ago that is mostly for show; I worry it will collapse if anyone actually sits on it. But a hammer from the same era is "vintage", and still gets use.
 
There are plenty of people out there scouring for antique furniture for everyday use.
Looking on the web, you'll go down a rabbit hole with various definitions being given by sellers of both. exempli gratia.
The 100 year old thing seems to be largely USan. I know a Danish fellow who lives in an 11th century farmhouse. Does that make his home prehistoric?
 
Chuck(G) said:
There are plenty of people out there scouring for antique furniture for everyday use.
Looking on the web, you'll go down a rabbit hole with various definitions being given by sellers of both. exempli gratia.
The 100 year old thing seems to be largely USan. I know a Danish fellow who lives in an 11th century farmhouse. Does that make his home prehistoric?
Click to expand...
No, but I'll bet it's plenty drafty.
 
My personal definition of "vintage" is anything from around 2005 (pre-intel core) and earlier, although I'm aware that's a bit of a liberal designation. I'm seeing more and more people calling P4-era systems vintage though.
 
3lectr1c said:
My personal definition of "vintage" is anything from around 2005 (pre-intel core) and earlier, although I'm aware that's a bit of a liberal designation. I'm seeing more and more people calling P4-era systems vintage though.
Click to expand...
yeah but society is de-volving even faster. This presents us with a unique opportunity to actually use our heads and make good decisions regardless of what the mainstream consensus tells us to do..

3lectr1c said:
My personal definition of "vintage" is anything from around 2005 (pre-intel core) and earlier, although I'm aware that's a bit of a liberal designation. I'm seeing more and more people calling P4-era systems vintage though.
Click to expand...

If its not over 25 years old to the day.. its not worth being mentioned. And even then.. Pentium 4's are best left forgotten. Like Latin, and good manners..
 
I just don't really understand why arguing over what's "vintage" or not is as big of a discussion as it is. I just don't feel like it matters much. I don't get the harm of adding a section for Pentium 4 systems, if someone doesn't think they're vintage, just ignore it? I don't really care whether one is added in the future or not, and I completely understand not considering them vintage yet, I just don't get why it's such a huge "NO WAY" for some people. I don't think the designation matters as much as the interest.
 
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