Re: why did apple go mac?

[dev.null@personal.information.com]

frankc <frankc@srv.net> wrote:
>> Upgrading components as you go.  What's the point?  [...]  By the time you
>> need to change, the rug is pulled from under you and you have to start all
>> over again.

> Not really, if you look at what is available for the PC then they have even
> encouraged an upgrade.  You can still get AT motherboards that can use two
> different types of memory.  You can get ATX cases that can accept both AT and
> ATX motherboards.  Many new motherboards come with both AT and ATX power supply
> connections.  Many come with on board sound, video, modem and network: so saving
> those ISA cards is no longer needed.  Many motherboards can use the first
> Pentium chip or you can install a brand new 500 MHz chip in it.  In fact I am
> looking into upgrading my PC and the first item will be a case so that I am
> ready for that more advanced motherboard.  The PC industry has gone out of its
> way to develop backward compatible motherboards to ease the upgrade process.
> The reason?  The industry realized that it is such a waste of resources to keep
> rebuying the same equipment over and over again that they had to make them
> upgradable.  When you take that supposedly old computer to the thrift shop
> somebody IS buying it and making use of it.  If Apple had continued to lead the
> industry they would be in the same boat.  "Upgradable" would be the only thing
> you would hear.

Frank,

Sometime after becoming confused with the notion of mainboard chipsets and
memory times (this was around the time of EDO) I gave up on the PC world and
shifted all of my attention to the Apple II, Macintosh and Atari ST.  It simply
became impractical to understand anything beyond a salesman's claim, and so
many salesmen will tell you want you want to hear (rather than the truth), that
I decided to dropp the idea of building a system and bought a prepackaged PPC
750 (what I call my iMac, when I don't want to be harassed ;-) two or three
years later.

The fact that there are so many options in the Intel world does not make
matters any better.  If you choose transition hardware, you are left with a
comprimise.  You will be paying for that comprimise in the next upgrade anyway,
so what is the point.  (Okay, so AT case vs. ATX case is no comprimise, but the
RAM is).  Grabbing computer parts from the thrift store doesn't help either,
because the stuff is always behind the times.  While the cases were good until
recently, the only valuable parts today are the chip RAM from 8088's and 286's
(to upgrade the Apple's and Atari's of this world).

If I ever feel the need to do something serious on the hardware level, then it
will be either on an Apple II/II+ or an XT.  I have reasonable documentation
for either machine, thus a reasonable chance of understanding it.  It is an
understanding of how a machine works which gives me satisfaction.  A hollow
upgrade I could care less about, particularly if that upgrade is to a thermally
challenged P3.

Byron.