Nathan and the Apple Community.

["Stephen B. Field" <sfield1@ix.netcom.com>]

I think it is a shame that Nathan took down his FAQ.  Without it, I would
probably never have been able to figure out all my problems with the apple.

One of the first computers that I owned was an Apple II Plus, I sold it
years ago and have always missed it.  By chance I discovered Asimov and
Applewin 1.0 (IBM PC Emulator) and got interested in the apple all over
again.   I then went out and purchased for $20.00 an enhanced apple II.
Later,
I was also able to find a Platinum enhanced apple II, an Apple II GS,
a IIC and a Commodore 128.

I think Nathans problem, and a portion of the apple community is they
believe that the product still has some real retail viability left to it.
As a
hobby, I have a lot of fun fooling around with this old equipment and have
collected some of the games out there, but don't expect to spend a whole lot
of money on new applications.

He was way to zealous on his prosecution of pirates.  I agree with the
copyright laws and not pirating software that is being sold on the retail
market.  But some of the hundreds of classic games on Asimov will never be
sold again.  I really wish that people would stop yelling back and forth
about this issue.  Start striving to make it an open system.  The
commodore/amiga
and other dead systems don't nearly have this kind of arguing about the same
issue.

It seems like people are split between those that own the old 8bit Apples
(II+,IIe,IIc) and the GS.  Those with the 8bit computers seem to appreciate
asimov and the programs on that system.  Those that own the GS still seem to
feel that there is money to be made on that system and don't like asimov.

If people keep arguing on these newsgroups I think they will continue to
chase away the contributions of others.  Its just amazing how petty some of
the newsgroup messages are.  Lets start helping people out thats the only
way
to keep the community alive and well.

My biggest compliant with the community has a whole is there refusal to
recognize the viability of apple emulators.  Most of these programs run .DSK
images while all the "legit" apple FTP sights refuse to format images in
this format.

This forces me to download .SHK images, and then dump them to the apple,
unpack them, save them on a floppy, and then send the image back through ADT
to the PC.   Its insane.  I still havn't entirely got the hang of this.

The community has a real elitest attitude that you have to own an apple in
order to run the software.   Again, I feel that this just simply chases away
more possible members.

If it wasn't for the emulators, I wouldn't have gotten back into the apple
again.

LETS STANDARDIZE THE WAY TO STORE IMAGES IN ONE UNIVERSAL
FORMAT!

I guess its alot like the MAC vs the PC argument.(But we don't need to go
there).