Re: Apple does it again

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <5diok6$23d@login.freenet.columbus.oh.us>,
Dave Althoff <dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us> wrote:
[Snippage]
> 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. 

   286s are almost always boat anchors, unless you can (and if you can't
you're not looking very hard) find a software collection from the late
80s/early 90s full of stuff that *does* run on them. Plenty of CD-ROMs
exist full of 286-happy stuff.

   A 386/16 from say 1987 or so with 8MB RAM (I think the box says 4,
but that'd be painful) and a VGA graphics card ($30 tops for a new or
used ISA slot) can run Windoze 95. That ain't much older at all than
these ancient Macs that Macheads keep trying to tout as backwards
compatible. You can also run the oodles of Windoze 3.x software on
them.

    So the problem is not lack of software, but consumers buying into
the mentality of only owning the latest software (and therefore also
the latest hardware), not spending the few seconds in the bargain bin
at their local computer store. [Lemmings and Oh no! More Lemmings on
CD-ROM for $4.50 at the local CompUSA, for a nice example.]

   386s also do a great job at running Linux. My appartment has one
phone line coming in, and 4 computers. With 'IP Masquerading' (pretty
much built into the latest (and also pretty much free) kernels), all
the machines are connected via ethernet (except for the GS, which
hangs off my P90's serial ports at 57600), and all can neatly access
the outside world. I also have a 386/40 on my desk at work to telnet
out to visi.com for news/email during the day, also run Lynx on it.
Sure, linux requires half a clue (the other half is provided by many
books on setting up/administring linux boxes), but it's a great use
for 386s and up.

>Likewise for the new games out there...you must have a top-end PC to run
>anything new.

   All the top-end games for every upgradable (ignoring the pretty
much unupgradeable console boxes) machine class tend to require the
top-end anyhow. WolfGS, playable, on an unaccelerated 1.25MB RAM ROM
00 GS? Yeaaah right. Even LemminGS wants speed and ram. Sure, there's
games like Tetris that succeed simply because of their awesome
gameplay and don't need any form of super-spiffy technology to run at
all, but for the latest experience in sound and graphics, that does
tend to require big machines.

   I also seem to recall that the new Mac games also really tend to
require a top-end Mac to run them, so that's not a PC-only criticism.


>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.

   Not really. It takes some poking around to find *where* to get new
hardware/software for GSs; they're not in stores or the like. You
apply the same dedication, you can find lots of ways to make a Commie
64 useful, an Amiga, a Mac Plus, or a PC. The problem is not people
being shafted by their companies, it's their laziness in seeing what
they can do with what they have.

   The criticisms of Apple that *are* valid are the cases where they
did an outright job of shafting their paying customers, like designing
and building an Apple II ethernet card, and wherehousing the whole
thing, going with proprietary and unreleased specs for their
previously very compatible equipment (Stylewriters after the
original), and not bothering to provide an iota of an upgrade path
until *way* too late, with the "//e emulation" card. Then there's also
their flakey new 3.5" drives that claim to be 800K compatible, but
enough reports filter down that they ain't, and the like.

Nathan Mates

--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein