While computers have become ever faster and more capable over the years, it’s hard to say they’ve become any more exciting. In fact, they’ve become downright boring. Desktop, laptop, or mobile, they’re all more or less featureless slabs of various dimensions. There’s not even much in the way of color variation — the classic beige box is now available with white, black, or metallic finishes.
Believing that such a pedestrian appearance isn’t befitting a device that puts the world’s collected knowledge at our fingertips, [Keegan McNamara] started exploring a more luxurious approach to computing. Gone is the mass produced injection molded plastic, in its place is hand-carved maple and Tuscan leather. Common computing form factors are eschewed entirely for a swooping console inspired by fine furniture and classic sports cars. The final result, called the Mythic I, is equal parts art and science. Not just a bold reimaging of what a computer can be, but an object to be displayed and discussed.
The write-up [Keegan] has prepared is a fascinating treatise on modern design and metaphysics that gives a unique insight into the thought process that went into the Mythic I computer. Those looking for slightly more technical details can check out the accompanying post on the forevercomputer mailing list.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to find any internal shots of the construction, but the mailing list post at least explained that it’s powered by an Intel NUC running a minimal Linux system which includes little more than wordgrinder. Sorry, the vi and emacs debate will have to go somewhere else.
Networking has been disabled to provide a distraction-free writing experience, though frankly, we’d have thought getting dumped into a Bash prompt at boot would already provide such an environment. To get files off of the system, [Keegan] wrote up a few scripts to simplify moving documents to and from a USB flash drive.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody attempt to create a more visually appealing desktop computer, but it’s certainly one of the most attractive and professionally done specimens to have graced these pages.