Re: Apple Computer, What Are You Up To?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Randy Shackelford <shack@onyx.southwind.net> wrote:

>Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:
>
>: Good point.  However, all Macs before iMac have a floppy drive.
>: The iMac itself has a floppy controller on the motherboard.  What
>: I'm saying is that the floppy drive, whether internal or external,
>: is part of what people have been using.  Why does Apple not include
>: a port on the back?  If they don't want to spend money on an internal
>: floppy, an external port is at least a transition.  Why chop it out
>: right away?
>
>In effect, there is a port. Since everyone expects USB to take off so much,
>and there already are USB style superdisks and Zip drives, that's good
>>enough. The superdisk in particular was announced when iMacs first appeared.
And that way you get away from Apple's typical price gouging on peripherals
>as well. Remember paying ~$350 for your 800K 3.5 drives? While we're talking
>along those lines, recall that only one Apple II model came with a floppy

Shame on you Randy, and you call yourself an Apple II enthusiast.
Both the IIc and the IIc Plus have an internal drive (and don't you
tell me that they are the same...that's like saying the Apple II and the
Apple II+ are the same).
 
>drive at no extra cost. And if you're like how Apple anticipates most new
>iMac owners to be, you don't handle floppy disks and have no need for a
>drive, so you don't have to buy one.

What about the lack of an ADB port and SCSI and serial ports?
That's more of a sin to me.  NO WIN/DOS PC MANUFACTURER
would do something like this.  Almost all new Win/DOS PCs have
USB ports, but they also have their equivalent of the other ports
(PS/2 keyboard and mice port, IDE port, serial and parallel ports).
And no cost excuse: the PCs are cheaper than the iMac even after
you add a monitor and modem.  I am sure most current Mac
owners who want to buy an iMac want to use some kind of ADB,
SCSI, or serial device on the iMac.  What if they already have an
SCSI Zip?

Again, this is the Apple/Jobs philosophy of "in one end out the
other."  They are good and bringing in new users but bad at
keeping them happy.  The only thing Apple does for old users
is lets them have token support via ftp server based software.
Compaq does that too.  But buy a new Compaq and you know
your current peripherals can still work without jumping through
hoops...along with USB ports for new stuff.  Buy a new Apple
and chances are, you are expected to change all your peripherals
"because Apple thinks it is good for you" or jump through hoops
(expensive adapters) to make the old peripherals work.

>: Answer: Apple's "I say so, everyone must think my way" philosophy.
>: Company policy is that 3.5" floppies are bad so all users must abide.
>: Why can't Apple behave like a normal company and go with the
>: customer's wishes?
>
>There's more of that third party opportunity stuff like Apple has always done.
>It could be worse, recall how utterly unexpandable Jobs' first stab at the
>"information appliance" i.e. the original Mac was.

I think Jobs was forced to see some light after he was kicked out
of Apple and saw that what finally let the Mac have a measure of
success was slots.  Remember, when Jobs was there, Macs did
not have slots.  Too "Wozniak" you know and Jobs always wanted
to steal the glory from his partner (which, sad to say, he more or
less has done except to diehard Apple II users).