10 Biggest Computer Flops of all time


Recommended Posts

Over the years, computers have changed the way we live today! In order to get us there, many hardware and software companies have pushed the envelope to create what we use today. Although we currently live in an age of amazing hardware and software achievements, these products did not come at no cost. Below is a list of some of the worst flops in computer history.

The Xerox Alto

Developed in 1972 at Xerox's Palo Alto Research center, the Alto had a bitmap display, windows, drop-down menu bars, a mouse, built-in Ethernet and hard disk, keyboard, word processor and more in their software productivity suite, a paint application, and even e-mail. Xerox was far to busy fighting the copier patent war, and was not interested. Steve Jobs was, and in 1984, Apple introduced Apple Lisa, and the Apple Macintosh. Although this was the most ingenious creation of the time, quite possibly responsible for the way we use computers today, it should be viewed also as a huge flop when Xerox did not capitalize on its innovation.

NeXT computer

This seemed like a great idea at the time. Steve Jobs resigned from Apple back in 1985 to start a new company called NeXT. The NeXT computer would be the most affordable UNIX super computer of its time. Running a Motorola 33-MHz 68030 processor, enclosed in a black case, there was no doubt this was the hottest and most powerful computer of its time. However at $6,000 a piece, and with no software that would run on the machine, it was really a $6,000 brick. Roughly 50,000 were ever produced. The company had spent over $250 million producing them. Although a huge disaster, this was also the computer that Tim Berners-Lee would later use to create the World Wide Web, and Steve Jobs would use as the core principals behind the new OS X.

IBM PCjr

IBM was trying to build an affordable machine for the classroom and the masses. Unfortunately, they ended up building an inferior non IBM-PC compatible machine with a ridiculously small keyboard that wouldn't run any software. The costs was a few dollars less than some IBM-PC compatible clones, so it was pointless to buy one. Another nice feature, the keyboard communicated with the computer via infrared beams. This provided hours of enjoyment in the classroom screwing up other peoples computing.

Apple Newton

Although produced for six years, it was never as successful as Apple had hoped. The main reasons: High price, Large size. It's handwriting recognition was notoriously bad, a problem that was featured in the Doonesbury comic strip. However, although the Newton product itself never made mass appeal, the technologies that were developed for the Newton are still used today and responsible for many huge success' for Apple (iPod, OS X) and started the PDA line of computer products.

Apple 3

Released in 1980, the Apple 3 became one of the worst computers ever built and most expensive. It was designed for the high end business market, but at a cost of $7,800, even business's had trouble justifying the cost. To make maters worse, the computer was made far to cramped with parts to make it smaller. When it became to hot inside the computer (Engineers opted to not use a fan), chips would start popping out of the boards! In order to correct the issue, Apple tech support could be heard saying "please lift up your Apple 3 about 10 centimeters off the desk, and drop it." this would put the chips back in the slots sometimes.

Apple Lisa

How much to get into an amazing Apple Lisa? $10,000 dollars. Announced in 1983, this was a complete disaster for Apple. Hardly any were ever sold. How many were produced? 100,000. The machine itself was far from powerful, and Apple users simply preferred the Macintosh. The development costs aren't to be found.

Microsoft Windows ME

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition was touted as the first operating system to support Universal Plug and Play. Unfortunately, this operating systems was quit possibly less compatible with hardware, than its predecessor, Windows 98. It was also notoriously difficult to re-install, which was terrible since this operating system needed to be re-installed almost weekly. Hardcore users claimed that Windows ME was more stable than 98, or 98SE, and the instabilities came from users installing bad drivers that were not approved and certified. Nevertheless, most users of Windows were beginners, and thus the perception that Windows ME actually stood for "Microsoft Experiment", "Moron Edition", "Mistake Edition", and "Memory Eater".

Microsoft Bob

This one is great. In 1995 Microsoft released a software package and interface that was aimed at replacing the Windows desktop with one aimed at novice computer users. The interface featured a big yellow smiley face with glasses and virtual rooms. Complete disaster! Far to simple, not powerful enough, over priced, and all and all, ridiculous. It was replaced that same year by Windows 95.

IBM OS/2

In the 1990's after feeling "Had" by Microsoft, IBM decided they could trounce Microsoft and come up with their own operating system. A great idea gone bad by marketing, the idea became to market OS/2 and the PowerPC Chip together. Had IBM pushed OS/2, and later OS/2 Warp as an operating system alternative to Windows, the computing landscape might have been different today. Instead, by the later half of the 1990's, Windows 95 and 98 had obliterated OS/2.

Gary Kildall's CP/M

Grab a cup of coffee for the biggest mistake, and largest computing stroke of luck that created Microsoft, and one of the wealthiest fortunes the planet has ever seen. In 1980, IBM finally realized they needed to put a home computer out on the market extremely fast. However they could not find the time to wait around to build their own operating system. They wanted to buy one, and the best one at the time, Gary Kildall's CP/M operating system. Where was Gary Kildall on this fateful day that the IBM suits came knocking? Out of office flying a private plane. IBM went back to the office's and looked up Microsoft, which they thought had a broad license to sell CP/M. Microsoft came in and negotiated a per licenses model to sell the operating system at 50 dollars per machine. Bill Gates had created the Software Licensing Industry!

Microsoft did not have such an operating system themselves, nor did they have a license to sell CP/M. In fact, Gary Kildall's Digital Research didn't have CP/M ready to run on the 16-bit computers IBM would manufacture. Tim Patterson did at the Seattle Computer Company, which Microsoft bought for $50,000. Had Gary Kildall been at the office, Microsoft and Bill Gates might have been eating macaroni and cheese, and the Digital Research operating system would be running on all of our computers. Gary Kildall died in July 1994 at the age of 52. The computer media mainly ignored his passing.

What do all of these stories have in common? Yes they were all mistakes, but almost all of them paved the way for some of the largest success's in computing history. Sometimes for the same company, sometimes for other companies. The lesson here is persistence, determination, and perseverance.

Source

Microsoft Windows ME was more stable than 98 and 98SE, atleast in my case.

I know some people who had many issues with it but mostly due to user errors installing wrong drivers and such.

I do agree it was a waste of an OS tho, it wasn't much of an upgrade from 98 but it did include System Restore and that helps some users.

Microsoft Windows ME was more stable than 98 and 98SE, atleast in my case.

I know some people who had many issues with it but mostly due to user errors installing wrong drivers and such.

I do agree it was a waste of an OS tho, it wasn't much of an upgrade from 98 but it did include System Restore and that helps some users.

They had a perfectly good OS to sell the public (Win2k). ME wasn't even needed.

They had a perfectly good OS to sell the public (Win2k). ME wasn't even needed.

Even tho back then a lot of drivers just didnt exist for Windows 2000...

For me Windows ME worked better than Windows 98 i guess it just depends on your hardware.

But once i upgraded from ME to XP after a week i wonderd how i ever used ME... XP just didnt not crash ;)

I was a beta tester for WinME and it was a complete mess. The beta newsgroup where filled with complains and stuff that where not working. Little did we know, MS decided one day that the OS was to RTM! With so many open bugs and unsatisfied beta users.... A nightmare.

People who thinks Vista will bomb like WinME are wrong. I see more happy users in the Beta now than with ME...

I WOULD ADD TO THIS LIST :

1) Everything Commodore did after the Amiga 500. The only reason why you would want to buy an Amiga 2000,3000 was because of Video Toaster. Amiga 600 and 1200 did cost less, but offered less too. By that time, the PC had took over... Did better in UK.

2) Atari complete line of PC, this was a flop at least here in USA/Canada. I had the Atari 512STE, cool at the time, better graphics and sound than the PC (CGA + Beeper at the time). But it was not a success except maybe for music producer. The Atari had built-in MIDI input/output.

Edited by TruckWEB

Microsoft Windows ME was more stable than 98 and 98SE, atleast in my case.

I know some people who had many issues with it but mostly due to user errors installing wrong drivers and such.

I do agree it was a waste of an OS tho, it wasn't much of an upgrade from 98 but it did include System Restore and that helps some users.

In my case the core dll files got corrupted every 6 months. ME used to frexe regularly once a day. It was a total nightmare.

Compare the parallel port version only to a usb pen drive! Now which one fits in your pocket!

I agree the usb versions are perfect it.

Ok. The list is things that never went anywhere. If you go by you theory of comparing old technology with new technology, then we could add a billion more things to the list...

They had a perfectly good OS to sell the public (Win2k). ME wasn't even needed.

That was for business customers. Like Windows NT is.

Derizilla is right. I had ME before XP back in 2001 and never had any problems with it. It ran as good as 98. It's you users that make it fail. Infact I still have the disc (needed it for the upgrade of XP Pro).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • For a guy who claims to hate Farage and the ignorant, gullible, rightwing racist skinheads sponsored by Putin that his lies represent, you sure are quoting them time and time and time again, mate. I guess you're conveniently ignoring the fact that your country and commonwealth just happened to work much better when it was still part of the E.U.? Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.
    • Do you live in the U.K? Do any of the people here that are against the UK leaving the E.U, live in the U.K? If not then why are you bothered? If you do live here then it is a different thing . Brexit was a good idea, should have done it years before, it was done badly, but the idea was good. You are saying the same thing as remainers do, oh we did what Putin wanted, we listened to the lies and Farage. I hate Farage and never believed most of what he said, certainly did not believe the £350m a week for the NHS. But we did pay a lot of money to the E.U and yes some of it came back, but what is the point of paying it out for only some of it to come back? Get out of the E.U, no money to them and in theory we can use the money to do things in the country. I said in theory, but our governments are a total and complete waste of space. No matter what colour rosette they wear. You and others say it was a mistake and yet the two main parties in the U.K are not looking at rejoining the EU, I wonder why that is? I was not tricked by anyone. Makes no odds now, we are out and have been for 10 years, what we need is a decent government to run the country. All they do is shout at each other like a load of kids and seems to do nothing and make this country more into a police and nanny state. Getting more like China all the time.
    • 4TB TEAMGROUP MP44Q, 2TB T-Force G50, and 2TB WD My Passport SSDs drop to great prices by Fiza Ali Prime Day may be over, but there are still worthwhile storage deals available, including discounts on SSDs for shoppers who missed the event or are looking to upgrade their storage solution. Particularly, 2TB Western Digital My Passport, 2TB TEAMGROUP T-Force G50, and 4TB TEAMGROUP MP44Q SSD are selling at great prices with up to 23% off. The 2TB TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 is an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD with sequential read speeds of up to 5,000MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 4,500MB/s. The drive has an endurance rating of 1,300 TBW (terabytes written) and features a DRAM-less design. The company specifies a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 3 million hours. The drive includes an "ultra-thin" graphene heat spreader that helps dissipate heat without significantly increasing the drive's thickness. It also supports S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, allowing compatible software to monitor drive health and operating status. The SSD is rated for operating temperatures from 0°C to 70°C, with a storage temperature range of -40°C to 85°C. The drive is backed by a five-year limited warranty as well. 2TB TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 SSD: $269.99 (Amazon US) The TEAMGROUP MP44Q is an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD that delivers sequential read speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 5,900MB/s. It uses 3D QLC NAND flash memory to provide 4TB of storage capacity for games, applications, media files, and other data. The drive has an endurance rating of 2,000 TBW and an MTBF of 1.6 million hours. The SSD features a DRAM-less design and supports TEAMGROUP's S.M.A.R.T. monitoring software, allowing users to monitor drive health, temperature, and remaining lifespan. For thermal management, the MP44Q also includes an "ultra-thin" graphene heat spreader. It is designed to operate at temperatures between 0°C and 70°C and can be stored at temperatures ranging from -40°C to 85°C. The SSD is also backed by a five-year limited warranty. 4TB TEAMGROUP MP44Q SSD: $478.99 (Amazon US) The 2TB WD My Passport SSD connects via a USB-C port using the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface. It delivers sequential read speeds of up to 1,050MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 1,000MB/s through NVMe technology. In terms of security features, the drive includes password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The SSD is also designed to resist shock and vibration and is rated to withstand drops from heights of up to 6.5 feet. The recommended operating temperature range is 5°C to 35°C, while the non-operating temperature range is -20°C to 65°C. This drive is also backed by a five-year limited warranty. 2TB Western Digital My Passport SSD: $279.99 (Amazon US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Yeah... The root of my comment, ostensibly, is how to spin the story via the actual technical merits of the solution! * Decentralized (aka federated) solution with built-in encrypted ephemeral message transport, * Transport via Relays (intermediary servers) with no message archival, * Second configurable pathway are actual email servers (if DNS records are programmed accordingly) via IMAP protocols carriage, * "Chat-over-Email" is the design pattern adopted; it can either leverage full-blown Email Server (must use the INBOX folder) to exchange all received messages/edits/reactions (so be weary of notifications overloads) [best practice is creating a separate email acct used explicitly for federated chat purposes!] or leverage its built-in Relay Server mechanism which actually resides on-device (by default but can be configured otherwise), * By virtue of be a decentralized/federated model, all other intermediary servers who may pass-along messages (while the recipient's final relay/device is inaccessible) cannot snoop on the messages due to the encrypted nature of contents. The intermediaries may, however, analyze the metadata due to the simple fact that routing mechanisms require hints for relay destinations. Unfortunately, whomever is posting about DeltaChat across socials are misleading with "zero metadata" claims -- especially when the Relays (according to their own technical documents) mandate the addition of chat-version metadata and other decorations in order to actually transport any message. -- Based on this summary, I'd prefer if they'd better dual-path message transport (email server add-in, federated relay engine) rather than patch-on email protocols to existing federated social media frameworks. They're frankensteining something rather than extending widely-deployed technology stacks.
    • Decentralized search result anonymization...
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      493
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      225
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      148
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      75
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!