March 27, 2026
Never Obsolete? Hold my floppy
EMachines never obsolete PCs: More than a meme
From $399 “never obsolete” PCs to meme legend—nostalgia vs. roasting
TLDR: A retro blog revisits eMachines’ “Never Obsolete” sticker, which really meant a $99 upgrade after two years if you used their internet service. Commenters are split between fond nostalgia and snarky roast, joking about swapping ancient 486s for modern chips while debating whether eMachines democratized PCs or wrecked the market.
The retro blog The Silicon Underground just dusted off eMachines’ wild “Never Obsolete” claim—those bargain-bin PCs from the late ’90s that slapped a sticker on a 366 MHz, 32 MB box and promised it would never go out of date. The fine print? If you used eMachines’ internet service, you could pay $99 after two years for an upgrade—while the case also wore an AOL logo. Yes, competing providers, same front panel. The internet is howling.
The comments turned into a group therapy session for an entire era. Bratmon fired off the meme of the day: “Where do I send my 486 for a Ryzen 7?” Meanwhile, whalesalad confessed a Windows ME misadventure—trying to share a CD burner over the house network—ending with the tough lesson: “sort-of mounts, totally useless.” Nostalgia bubbled up too, with folks sighing over the “little white desktop” and calling it a “blast from the past.”
But the real split? Folk hero vs. market villain. One camp says eMachines were “ok for the price” and got families online for $399. The other, led by tracker1, calls it “a race to the bottom,” squeezing indie PC builders until the margins vanished. So the verdict on “Never Obsolete”? A perfect sticker, a legendary meme, and a comment section that won’t let it die—ever.
Key Points
- •eMachines launched in Q3 1998 and rapidly disrupted entry-level PC pricing with $399–$699 models.
- •The company sold 2 million PCs in 1999 and completed its IPO on March 23, 2000.
- •“Never Obsolete” stickers appeared less than a year after launch on low-spec PCs (e.g., 366–566 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM).
- •The offer’s fine print: after two years, subscribers to eMachines’ internet service could get an upgrade to the then-fastest PC for $99.
- •eMachines also accepted AOL sponsorship, preloading AOL and adding its sticker, which sat alongside eMachines’ own offer.