In his latest Green magazine column, Gene Steinberg proposes his picks for the seven greatest Macs of all time.

Gene notes: "Just about any devoted Mac user could probably come up with seven totally different selections with equally valid reasons for the choices. Our specific criteria include innovative design, great performance, visceral appeal and, as much as possible in this rapidly changing industry, enduring the test of time."

And Gene's winnahs are:
• Macintosh 128K
• Macintosh II
• Macintosh IIci
• Quadra 840AV
• Power Macintosh 8100
• iMac
• PowerMac G4 Cube

Not bad choices, but as a former happy PowerBook 5300 owner (it was my main workhorse computer for three years of 10 hour days and never missed a beat or required repairs during that time, and continues to serve my daughter faithfully at school), I have to take issue with Gene's choice of the PowerBook 190 and 5300 Laptops as "The Worst Mac Ever."

The 5300 had some problems, but the case cracks and screen hinge problems were arguably no worse than similar problems that are now showing up on the WallStreet and Lombars 'Books, with the distinction that Apple fixed the 5300s for free, but will charge you $300 - $500 to fix your WallStreet. *Some* 5300s (mine didn't) had mobo problems, but Apple fixed those for free too, and once reworked, the 5300 is a reliable (albeit now painfuly slow) machine.

For counterpoint, here are my picks for the ten best desktop Macs and ten best PowerBooks of all time (so far).

Desktop machines:
• The Macintosh Plus
• The Macintosh SE/30
• The Macintosh IIci
• The Macintosh IIfx
• The Macintosh LC III Family (LC III, 520, 550; Performa 450, 460, 466, 467, 550, 578; Macintosh TV)
• The Macintosh Centris/Quadra 650
• The Macintosh Quadra 800/840av/900/950 Family
• The Power Macintosh 6100 family (PowerMac 6100/ 6100AV/ 6100DOS/ Performa 6110-6118)
• The Power Macintosh 9500/9600
• The iMac
• The Power Macintosh G3 (Yosemite/ Blue & White) and Power Macintosh G4 (Yikes!/Sawtooth/Dual-Processor)

PowerBooks:
• Power Book 180/180c
• PowerBook 500 Series
• PowerBook Duo
• PowerBook 5300 Series (Yes; see above)
• PowerBook 1400
• PowerBook 2400c
• PowerBook 3400 Series/Original PowerBook G3 (3500; "Kanga")
• PowerBook G3 Series I and II (WallStreet and PDQ)
• Paris iBooks
• PowerBook (FireWire) - "Pismo"

Worst Mac? I'll pass.

Charles W. Moore

.