Re: Apple does it again

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Randy Shackelford (shack@onyx.southwind.net) wrote:
: Rick Hatton (hattonr@aug.com) wrote:
: : <rubywand@aol.com> wrote:

: : >  Really, owners of Macs which do not run the latest Mac OS have some
: : > cause for celebration. 

: : Really. Untill December, the lastest OS was 7.7.5, which a Plus could
: : run. If you dont want to "ride till Apple crashes"... dont. Buy another
: : computer.

: Ya know, there are two things I'll never understand about the Apple hater
: crowd. One is why they think Apple should support every product they've ever
: made from now til doomsday, and why they think other companies will support
: their products more. Apple has provided far better support than has Microsuck.
: I'd like anyone with a 286 PC from early '86 to tell us how well Win95 runs
: on it. I can tell you that MacOS 7.5.5 runs great on my Plus on the other 
: hand.

Good point, Randy!

I just set up a IIgs on my desk at work.  I work in the technology
division at a small University; specifically, I am the media guy.  The
IIgs is a modest machine, with a 20Mb Focus and a mere 1.25Mb of memory,
unaccelerated.  Down the hall from me is the computer graveyard, where
"obsolete" machines are being pulled from faculty offices as the faculty
get new 80486 and Pentium boxes and a few Power Macintoshes.  So we have a
room full of worthless computers, including 80286, PS/2-30 (8086), 80386,
and even some 8088 machines.  These machines are being stripped of
anything useful, and waiting for the people in charge to figure out how to
dispose of them.  I find it interesting that the IIgs I just set up is,
though abandoned by Apple years ago, actually more current than most of
the old PCs.  The few Macintoshes that went through the graveyard room
have been redistributed on campus, since they still have useful life (they
just lack Ethernet connectivity), but the Intel boxes are for all intents
and purposes *dead*.  You can't even take an 80286 home for the kiddies to
use because the edutainment software expects you to have at least an 80486
with 4Mb RAM, CD-ROM, 50Mb of free HD space, sound card, and Win95. 
Likewise for the new games out there...you must have a top-end PC to run
anything new.

On the other hand, The Tinies (and presumably LemminGS) runs fine on my
computer, and one of these days I'll finally order that GraphicWriter III
update.  I can still contact Apple (via FTP) and get a fresh copy of GS/OS
6.0.1...but does Micro$oft still sell MS-DOS 5.0?  Heck, have they
discontinued 6.22 yet?  In fact, I think Windows 3.1 may also be
orphanware by now.

I think a lot of people are upset because Apple delcared "Apple ][
Forever" and then promptly discontinued the entire series.  But they've
done better by all of their legacy customers than most of the PC world
companies.

]Dave Althoff, ][.
-- 
    /-\        _       _           ***  New season begins May 9!  ***
   /XXX\      /X\     /X\_      _     /XX\_      _     _        _____  
  /XXXXX\    /XXX\  _/XXXX\_   /X\   /XXXXX\    /X\   /X\      /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX