Quest for The Packard Bell, The : Introduction - (Post No. 12)

Quest For The Packard Bell

-- Introduction --

The Weeb Cafe Post #12.

     Hello, and welcome to a series of blog posts that will be released until the end of when I write these posts, namely, the "Quest For The Packard Bell." Some may wonder why I am doing something like this, or what is so special about the marque of computers referred to as "Packard Bells." This post will give a brief brand history, as well as telling (somewhat) of what would be so special about "Packard Bells" that I absolutely feel that I must have a computer made by this manufacturer, (again if I hadn't had one that worked to as close as factory new as reasonably possible since the one that was my Dad's unit since the 1990s.) 

 

Introduction

Why are you doing this? 

    Why am I doing this? Well, supposedly I'm supposed to be living in a place where wi-fi services for the Internet are supposed to be kind of semi-reliable, which they are usually, but sometimes I get worse signal quality than others, and I kind of sometimes can play certain games offline - but on the other hand, others... Just refuse to load/connect. 

    Although I'm a fairly patient individual (most times), Sometimes, things can just try my patience to the absolute limit and I want to do something else. This may also be due to the fact that growing up, I was a kid with ADHD. Or on the Asperger's syndrome, which I think probably might be not the different thing, because I seem like my focus isn't the greatest most times anyway. 

    And, if my parents seem to think I'd be better off working in some sort of transcription job than trying to start a business, I will start a transcription business out of my new bedroom and probably not want a terribly contemporary version of Microsoft Windows, because Office 2019 or 365 or 420 (whatever) can still open Documents that were created using Microsoft Word 95-2003. 

   Tl;dr - Modernity is distracting, and in some cases abandonware may be more of something that I can apply employable under my hobby, even if such desires are met with some resistance from other members of my own family. Or people from the Serenity Gaming crew. 

A Brief Brand History

    Packard Bell is a Dutch-registered computer manufacturing brand and subsidiary of Acer. Originally an American radio set manufacturer, Packard Bell Corporation, it was founded by Herbert A. Bell and Leon S. Packard in 1933. In 1986, Israeli investors bought the brand from Teledyne which had taken it over much earlier.

    This explanation, taken from Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), shows the history of the name that it was originally based on. Which is why some of the early Packard Bell computers had the message as the computer was turning on, "America grew up listening to us. It still does." 

    Another way it makes sense, is that Packard Bell computers were a subsidiary of 

Acer which were sold alongside Acer computers throughout the 1990s. Although mostly across-the-pond sales are made now, there are rumors of it coming back, although the new Packard Bell systems are not the same as the beige ones similar to the ones I remember sitting on my Dad's desk in 1995-2001. 

What are so special about Packard Bell computers that I absolutely have to have one? 

    Short answer, nothing! They are just all in this particular context, a generic beige-box IBM clone PC from the 1990s, which the supposed version I am looking to have would be the oldest having as the OS which it would have shipped with from the factory in Freemont, California, Microsoft's Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, and the latest being Windows 95. 

     My belief that Windows XP is also a meme OS and that makes it over-rated, also contributes to my wanting to have a computer that would have been from before the Windows XP era, so I guess that counts for something. Plus the activation feature of Windows XP and versions since, (Like Vista, 7, 8.1, 10, and 11 for instance) make me even further interested in turning back the clock (in a sense) for me from the 2020s to the 1990s. I mean, I have no time machine, but I'll take the next best thing. Plus, I don't believe tablet apps have a place on the desktop or laptop computer, and I will use my gaming PC running Windows 11 to play XBOX games, considering that the Windows license was indeed just a license, not a sale, plus an XBOX framework extra.

    So, the story is not yet over. On Post #13, we will be looking at past attempts to get the Packard Bell, that was like I always wanted, and the two defeats and one near victory.