Re: Cnet Article on Abandonware

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

Paul Grammens wrote:

>
> Yes, it's a difficult concept for the limited vogon mind to grasp, but it
> seems clear that piracy can be a positive thing not only for the platform,
> but also for the firm who's software is being pirated.
>
> For example, Microsoft's programs don't even check to see if they are being
> run from their cdrom.  Using limited vogon thinking, Microsoft should have
> been put out of business by pirates, yet they not only survive, they thrive.

Snicker. By Paul's limited reasoning, you'd think that Micro$oft et al would
encourage piracy. And, as others have said, Ernest is all wet, Doom, Doom II,
and Quake were released in shareware as well as full versions, so ID understood
that getting a limited, crippled copy of their game would drive up sales, but
piracy would steal sales. You both are so limited.

>
>
> Contrast that with the Apple II. I have a hard disk, but it's almost like
> "What's the point?" A large percentage of my legal software has to be booted
> from it's copy-protected floppy.  Because of that obsession with
> anti-piracy, the Apple II platform died off.

Bull. IBM had copy-protected software in the beginning too. Lotus 1-2-3 could be
installed on your hard disk, but you had to have the floppy in drive A, ditto
for dBase III. You're obsessed with your errors.

> What is the motivation to
> increase the speed and graphic capabilities, when the software is required
> to fit on and run from a floppy? Hence the Apple II got left behind.  Vogons
> and their mindset killed the Apple II.

LOL - you are so stupid Pud. If you look at the date of release, you will notice
that fewer and fewer companies did software copy protection after 1984. On all
platforms. The reason software was sold on floppies, is because that's how it
was delivered. Apple IIs had a much lower percentage of hard drives compared to
PCs, so more of them needed to run from floppies at that time. Again, consider
your timeline: 1984 the AT, 1986 the IIGS, 1987 386s and VGA, and never again
did Apple release and upgrade to the II. Speed, power, graphics, all going to
the PC line, in ever increasing capabilities and numbers of installed machines,
that's what killed the Apple II, not copy protection. You mindset is so limited.

>
> Piracy is like the wolves that cull the herd. It forces software companies
> to constantly improve their products,

It forced them for years to create new copy protection schemes, instead of new
products. Nice culling.

> which forces hardware improvements.

Which Apple didn't supply.

>
> The main reason I upgrade my PC every couple of years is that my family buys
> a game that requires higher performance.

Too bad Apple didn't do that for the II line, like they do for the Mac.

>
> Don't have to do that with my Apple II's, not with software limited to
> running from copy-protected floppies.

Hmm, then don't run 1982 software dippy.

Roy

>
> -Paul