Beige box

{{Short description|Aesthetic style in personal computers}}

{{about|the personal computer|the phreaking device|Beige box (phreaking)}}

{{more citations needed|date=July 2010}}

File: Personal System 2 Series of Computers.png PCs]]

File:BP Mobil Helpdesk Rotterdam 23 July 1999.jpg

In consumer computer products, a beige box is a standard personal computer (PC). It has come to be used as a term of derision implying conservative or dated aesthetics and unremarkable specifications.{{cite book

|title= The Internet For Dummies

|last= Levine & Young

|authorlink=

|author2=John R. Levine|author3=Margaret Levine Young

|year= 2010

|publisher= For Dummies

|location=

|isbn= 978-0-470-56095-2

|page= 49

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7HBIV_gCAR4C&q=%22Beige+box%22&pg=PA49}} The term is ultimately derived from the style of many early personal computers and dedicated word processors, which were usually beige or similar colors like off white or ecru.

IBM's early desktop computers (e.g. IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC/AT) were beige, and box-shaped, and most manufacturers of clones followed suit.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} As IBM and its imitators came to dominate the industry, these features became standards of desktop computer design.

Early Macintosh models were a beige color (specifically Pantone 453). Although Apple switched to a desaturated gray they called “Platinum” in 1987, users began to refer to them as “beige” following the introduction of the brightly colored iMac in 1998 and the Blue and White G3 in 1999. It eventually became a standard term to identify any previous Old World Macintosh, such as the “Beige G3.”{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

While the original Commodore 64 was a deeper brown (specifically, RAL 1019),{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=28 August 2019|title=Matching Commodore breadbin beige|url=https://dfarq.homeip.net/matching-commodore-breadbin-beige/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829062502/https://dfarq.homeip.net/matching-commodore-breadbin-beige/ |archive-date=2019-08-29 |access-date=2021-01-05|website=dfarq.homeip.net}} its second revision in 1986, the C64C, was beige. The German-exclusive minor revision of the original form factor the following year, sometimes referred to as the C64G, combined the new beige color of the C64C with the original larger size case.

The term is also sometimes used to distinguish generic PCs from models made by "name brands" such as Compaq, Dell, or HP. In the early years of these companies, most of their units were beige as well. More recently, as name-brand manufacturers have moved away from beige (typically switching to black, dark gray, and silver-colored cases),{{Cite news|last=Lohr|first=Steve|date=2002-04-18|title=The Beige Box Fades to Black (Published 2002)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/technology/the-beige-box-fades-to-black.html|access-date=2021-01-05|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Spooner|first=John G.|title=PC makers look beyond the beige box|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/pc-makers-look-beyond-the-beige-box/|access-date=2021-01-05|website=ZDNet|language=en}} inexpensive generic cases became more distinct as "beige boxes". Today, the term "white box" has largely replaced this usage.{{Cite book|last1=Ross|first1=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agJN3GO2RTwC&pg=PA32|title=PC User's Bible|last2=Murdock|first2=Kelly L.|date=2007-03-12|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-08897-5|language=en}}