[MacosNerd]

Gateway once a moving force in the peeee world, now are sold to acer

MSNBC

I was never a fan of gateway and when they first opened their store fronts, I thought it was a dopey move. Buy a computer in a store but wait to have it shipped to you.

They fall off the map a number of years ago and to be honest when I saw this new article, I thought - they were still in business?

They tried and tried to copy Apple's design, like the iMac but it looked like a pale comparison and most people avoided it.

[Cold Warrior]

Undistinguished product in an undistinguished marketplace. No surprise.

[osiris]

The boxes where cool, for a while, but branding only gets you so far.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by osiris 

The boxes where cool, for a while, but branding only gets you so far.

Yeah, I really wanted a Cow Pie computer. Good riddance.

[Rumor]

My mother had a Gateway once. I don't think I've seen so many hardware failures in the first three months.

[ghporter]

My first two computers were Gateways; they were very nice machines (for their time) and served me well. That was around 1992 and 1996. A lot has changed since then... It's kind of sad, really, because while they were players, they had some really good, really innovative hardware.

[Big Mac]

Given your knowledge and background, Glenn, I'm surprised you didn't have an original IBM PC.

[ghporter]

I couldn't afford a computer of my own until I NEEDED one for school-Computer Science and all that... Then the student loan covered it, so that was good. Since then I've collected quite a few of them.

When I bought my iMac, Apple sent me an email that lets me ship them two pieces of hardware to recycle. I'm planning on my second Gateway, a Pentium at 200 MHz (!) and its hug tower case. The second item will probably be my ancient HP inkjet-which no longer works. I still have a few motherboards and a number of really old video and sound cards in a box in my attic. I'll give those to Goodwill, which refurbishes and cleans up computer stuff then sells it at a special store. I'm now in the "clean out the gunk" mode for computer stuff.

[pinenuts]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

a Pentium at 200 MHz (!) and its hug tower case.

Hug tower?

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by pinenuts 

Hug tower?

I think he meant huge

I never owned a gateway and to be honest never had a desire to do so. I saw them copy Apple's design all of the time and even in their hayday people I know who bought them had trouble.

There boxes were the coolest part and what does that say

[jedi2187]

Originally Posted by MacosNerd 

I think he meant huge

I'M HUGE!

Back in the mid-90's, Gateway had some impressive hardware. Then the iMac came out in '98, and there was no looking back! Tho the only PC I have ever owned was an ancient IBM 486 PS/2 25MHz (and X-Wing totally rocked on that system!).

[Don Pickett]

Dell really did in Gateway, but then Dell did in just about everyone in the PC field. They have mastered the low-overhead, just-in-time build cycle and it's difficult to complete against them. Gateway got caught in the middle, one foot in the in the low-end Dell world and one foot trying to compete against Apple with the retails stores. Dell moved the whole PC manufacturing world downmarket and Gateway couldn't compete.

[papadopolis]

My sister got one about 6 years ago she has had her HD fail 3 times... Not to say that it is as slow as a snail. I remember going to the gateway store when she was buying it, and I did not understand why she could not just get it in the store I kept telling the sales persons that that was awful, who wants to pay for a comp then wait 2 weeks for it to come?

[::maroma::]

When Apple opened up their first retail brick & mortar store I thought, "Oh god, please don't let it be another Gateway Store." But of course Apple did it right. And Gateway is now but an amusing memory.

Oh well. The whole cow motif was fun and all, but the hardware was pure cow pie. (zing!)

[Jumbonium2007]

I have one of those iMac look alikes from gateway sitting in my closet
a whopping 433mhz celeron with 128MB of ram.. been thinking of making it a NAS box or just shoot it up with some weapons

[mitchell_pgh]

I remember WAY back (circa 1992) when they really did offer solid machines. They were a good low cost option. By 1995-1996, that really changed...

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by pinenuts 

Hug tower?

Yes, "huge" was what I meant. Sometimes I need to proof my proofreading.

This case is almost two feet tall and over 16" deep. And steel-LOTS of steel. Huge is a good word for it.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Yes, "huge" was what I meant.

But don't you want to hug it

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by MacosNerd 

But don't you want to hug it

Not anymore. When I got it, a Pentium at 200MHz was "all that." I think we've all grown some since then...

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by papadopolis 

My sister got one about 6 years ago she has had her HD fail 3 times...

Coincidence. Gateway didn't make HDs, so it was a third party drive.

-t

[olePigeon]

In other news, Apple just overtook Gateway as the the 3rd largest Laptop seller in the U.S., at 17.6%, behind HP and Toshiba. Hah.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list

[Jawbone54]

I'm really happy to see Gateway get bought out. Their computers were always crap, in my experience. My wife and her sister both bought Gateways about 5 years ago. I dreaded going to visit them (they lived 2 hours away), because I knew I'd have to take a look at their computers and tell them why they had to be shipped off yet again.