Re: Apple Computer, What Are You Up To?

[greg@apple2.com]

In article <coaxial-2802992359580001@stpras01-p13.mts.net>,
coaxial@escape.ca (coaxial) wrote:
>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:

>> Same with the iMac, which HAS a floppy
>> drive controller on the motherboard but lacks a $5 ribbon cable
>> and external DB connector for that controller.

> And we all know how darn useful that 1.4MB floppy is nowadays on modern
> machines....

Indeed.  Sometimes I find I need small, cheap, portable storage.  I've
taken classes in college where we had to turn in electronic files along
with lab books containing experimental data.  I had no qualms about
letting them keep the 3.5" disk but would not be comfortable wasting a
more expensive Zip disk, particularly since I don't have a Zip drive
myself.

With the Apple ][, Apple made it possible to use both cassette tape
storage and 5.25" disks, giving a migration path from the old to new
media.  With the Apple IIgs, Apple made it possible to use both 5.25" and
3.5" disks so that there was a migration path from the old to new media,
while dropping cassette input in that model.  They made Macs with 3.5"
drives with OS support for 400K to 1440K disks, leaving out 5.25" disks,
and eventually leaving out the 400K single-sided 3.5" disk as well not
long before introducing HFS+.  We've had continuity in built-in writable,
removable media until now.  Now the holdover is an Ethernet connection to
the older machines with the support.  Eventually new networking systems
will replace even that.

I've never gotten rid of an old computer.  I still have my //e, my IIgs,
and will continue to hold onto my PowerMac 7500/100 even as I plan to get
a Blue G3 400 MHz system.  I also love my new NeXT Cube recently given as
a Christmas gift and won't give it up either.

Migration paths are important.  I'm keeping my 7500/100 so that I can
continue to use the hardware I have, sharing what I can over Ethernet. 
I'll continue buying and using 3.5" disks as they're the easiest way to
sneakernet my files to Kinko's for printing for as long as their systems
continue to support them.  


I do have another observation to bring this more into the c.s.a2 group: 
Jobs made a big deal about how you could boot several diskless iMacs of a
Mac OS X server (though one demo of it failed miserably).  Seems the IIgs
had the same capability over AppleTalk until Apple discontinued that
feature in the dedicated server.  Even a //e could do it with the right
interface card installed.

Has anyone tried to shoehorn support for this back into desktop Macs?  I'd
like to try that again outside of a high school environment with my
7500/100.  Alternatively, what was the latest version of the AppleShare
server that had this support, and can I run it on my 7500/100 under Mac OS
8.5.1 and still use other applications?  Maybe with a Localtalk/Ethertalk
bridge?

Maybe someone could talk Apple into releasing that old version to
net-downloadable freeware, or the documentation on how it was done so some
enterprising programmer could write a system extension to re-enable it?

-- 
Nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand,
nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of beer.  You take one down, pass it around,
nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine