Re: trying to get an Apple II GS going for fun...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:

>Astro <wizard@direct.ca> wrote:
>
>>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>> 
>> Yeah I recently read up on some Apple Corp history. Jobs may indeed
>> have had the enterprising drive which catapulted Wozniak's ingenious
>> invention into the mass market, but if it weren't for the utter
>> validity and elegance of Wozniak's invention, Jobs might not have ever
>> got anywhere. At least it is my understanding that the original Apple
>> I was primarily conceptualized and constructed by Woz. Of course the
>> Apple I would eventually evolve into the IIGS, only to evolve no
>> further, because of Jobs undermining the project.
>
>Did Jobs have anything to do with the languishing of the IIgs?  I think
>he was gone from Apple before the IIgs was released (I seem to remember
>that John Sculley was in charge at the time), and Jobs didn't come back
>until after all Apple II development was canned (1993).

Jobs didn't stunt the IIGS directly, but he planted the seeds since before
the IIGS was released.  This was the guy who at the unveiling of both the
Apple III and the Lisa called the Apple II "the boring side of Apple."
Indeed, he was responsible for splitting Apple into the Apple II division
and the Everything Else division (which first made the III, then the Lisa,
then the Mac) and then draining people and resources from the Apple
II division.

When the IIGS design team "stole" a couple of Mac engineers to help
put the mouse tools into the IIGS (this was in the IIGS' pre-release
design phase), Jobs went ballistic!  He tried to block it!  He didn't want
the mouse near the IIGS for fear it would compete against the Mac.

Under Jobs' supervision, Apple faltered.  With the III and Lisa as
flops and the Mac not selling well, Jobs still refused to stop trying to
kill the Apple II.  Finally, Jobs was fired.  Sculley took over.  While
not completely reversing Jobs' anti-Apple II policies, he adopted the
policy of "leave the II to fend for itself, borrow the good features
from the IIGS, and put Apple II profits into Macs."  He also
reintegrated the Apple II and Mac divisions.  It was only until after
Jobs was fired that the Mac become profitable and the key to that
turn to profitability was 1) the appearance of the ADB bus, first
seen on the IIGS, 2) a color GUI, which first appeared on the IIGS
(remember, all Macs before the IIGS were black and white), 3) slots
(which Jobs frowned upon, since they were used on the "boring"
Apple II), 4) styling (the Macs after the IIGS looked like the IIGS),
5) the separation of monitor from CPU case (more like the IIGS
than the pre-IIGS black and white Macs with integrated 9" screens)
and 6) keeping the Apple II line with IIGS as flagship alive as a
"lame duck" computer line to generate profits to jump start Mac
development and marketing.

It was pretty amazing that the Apple IIGS lasted for so long
considering the neglect Apple dished on it.  A neglect that sprouted
from the seeds of anti-Apple II mentality planted by Jobs.  For
example, the number of IIGS commercials and advertisements can
probably be counted on one hand.