CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@argv_minus_one

You could definitely buy major name consumer grade 286 desktop PCs in 1990.

My dad replaced our family's z80-based Heathkit with a 286-based Packard Bell on or around that year.

A lot of people just didn't use Windows back then, and the extra cost of a 386 had little advantage if you weren't doing gui+multitasking.

It wasn't the 386 that ushered in the end of 16 bit computing, it was windows 3.1... which could run on a 286 but was painfully restricted there.

@argv_minus_one @silvermoon82

No, lots of the early socket 5 pentium motherboards were plain-AT, it wasn't until the later ones, with socket 7 and SDRAM, that they started adopting ATX. Mostly because it meant they could get 3.3v directly from the psu instead of needing a regulator on the mobo.

I had a gateway 2000 100mhz pentium with a big clonky power button and big hot 3.3v regulators on the motherboard.