Re: Why own an apple2?

[Chad Choi Lin <chadlin@nyetcom.com>]

Jim wrote:

> So why own an apple2?
> 
> 1.  You owned one and cut your teeth in the digital world on a 2e.
>     When you were 14, that machine was your world, but along the way between
>     then and now you somehow persuaded yourself you didn't need it anymore,
>     and you got rid of it.  Now you've gotten another one just like it, and
>     expanded it beyond anything you could have dreamed of back then.
> 
> 2.  You work with modern computers.  You are sick of the bloated,
>     poorly engineered junk (especially software wise) being foisted off as
>     "the latest thing".  You cut your teeth in the age of text based computing
>     and it somehow warms your spirit to go back now and again.  So you bought
>     the machine that was the very symbol of the personal computing revolution.
> 
> 3.  You like to tinker with electronics.  You have the urge to develop
>     something cool, or maybe just practice and expand your understanding of
>     computing to a hardware level.  And you don't want to fry your
>     multi-thousand dollar desktop machine, nor do you want to pay the hundreds
>     or thousands of dollars for the software and hardware tools to develop
>     for modern computers.  So, you bought an apple2e for 40 bucks on the
>     grounds that if you fry it, you'll be sad, but not out a lot of money.
> 
> 4.  You like old electronics.  You have a small collection of antique phones,
>     antique radios, and so on.  You buy these things because you have a deep
>     need for things to be *solid* and enduring, unlike the essentially plastic
>     and disposable world you live in.  That ancient, solid keyboard somehow
>     feels more solid and good under your hands than the modern, ergonomically
>     correct board you use for your other computers.  The solid grunt of a 5.25
>     floppy makes you smile when it actually does retrieve data in spite of
>     seeming hopelessly mechanical.
> 
> 5.  (related to #4)  You hate to see tools that still work thrown out just
>     because they're not new.  It galls you to think of all the perfectly
>     functional computers that got retired to scrapyards - or worse - landfills
>     when they are still just as capable of doing the work they were designed
>     for.  You start to realise just how hard the "latest thing" has been
>     rammed down your throat by Intel, Microsoft (or Apple, for you Mac fans,
>     but it's much more prevalant in the PC world) and you buy this aged
>     little machine as an act of rebellion against them.  Now for spite,
>     you want to find something useful for it to do.

Reason #6: You want a computer system that works, yet no one in their
right mind would steal.

     This (and the fact that we are always strapped for cash) is why our
college radio station got an Apple //c. Earlier this year we had a
heartbreaking incident in which some dirty so-and-so broke into the 486
PC machine sitting in the lobby and stole the Ethernet card that
connected it to the local university network -- and damaged the computer
in the process. Our //c is immune to such a problem because a) it has no
expansion slots, so there are no cards that can be stolen, and b) IT
DOESN'T WORK WITH IBM OR MAC STUFF. You can't run Windows on it, you'll
never be able to put Macintosh software into it, so why on earth would
you steal it?

-- 
Peace, Love, and Apple II Forever!
Chad Choi Lin
chadlin@nyetcom.com

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