Adam Rosen’s collection of vintage Macs doesn’t make him a hoarder, but he acknowledges it doesn’t make him an obvious choice for a husband, either.

In several rooms of Rosen’s Boston home you’ll find a love story nonetheless. The rooms are shrines to a high school sweetheart that matured and grew more sophisticated with time, a friendly face still aglow with “hello.”

Rosen stuck with Apple through those lean years, and Jobs eventually returned to Apple to make it the global brand it is today.

Unintentional Mac museum

Sometime in 2001, Rosen’s collection began. It was unintentional, but he noticed people were throwing away their old Macs. He started going to tech flea markets at MIT, buying cheap machines he never owned.

The Mac evolution

Currently, Rosen’s collection is made up of five distinct categories or eras: 68k Macintosh — The Computer for the Rest of Us; Power PC Beige — Beleaguered Apple Computer; PowerPC G-Series — Post-NeXT and the Second Jobs Dynasty; PowerBook — The Power to Be Your Best; and Rare Items — Demo Units and Uncommon Collectibles.

Once Apple changes chips, Rosen will be ready for a category that defines the Intel Era with a tagline along the lines of Embracing Aluminum and Passing the Baton.

“I already have some of the older Intel machines, but there isn’t a display or web presence for these machines, mostly due to space constraints and the fact that Intel models are still current,” Rosen said.

Rosen would like to see his collection be part of a public exhibit one day, but for now, he lives with his collection. The living room and the bedroom where he sleeps are Mac-free.

“It’s not the only thing you see in the house,” he said. “But if was married I would never be able to get away with this.”

Surely, a prospective spouse can appreciate the clean, orderly fashion of the rooms Rosen designed for his Macs. Competing with them for his heart might be another matter.

Source: cult of Mac