Re: Apple does it again

[shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <5cr7ie$cp8@inet-nntp-gw-1.us.oracle.com>,
Christopher D. Heer <cheer@i.hate.spam> wrote:
>In article <32F0F11D.4CA8@lexis-nexis.com>, utownje@lexis-nexis.com says...
>
>>Looks like Apple has abandoned me again, this time on the Mac side.  Not
>>that I really mind that much, but I find it somewhat amusing to be going
>>through this again.  "Been there, done that," as they say.

[snip]

>That's just how it works.  I think Apple's done a pretty good job of 
>maintaining support long past the life expectancy of its actual models.
>
>These days, we are forever getting into arguments with finance types about 
>depreciation.  I tell 'em not to expect more than three years out of a 
>computer.
>
>As the number of business users of machines drops dramatically (since they 
>usually want the newer software, etc.), it becomes less financially sensible 
>to provide heavy support.  Other companies, user groups, etc. will fill the 
>gap.  A quick glance around here shows me that I can still replace/fix pretty 
>much anything in my //e or Franklin ACE 1000.  But I hardly expect them to be 
>currently supported, nor do I expect them to run the latest software.

Yeah no joke. All Apple is asking is for you to have a Mac introduced this
decade, or a IIci at the oldest. When you consider how much code it takes to
support the oldest boxes, the amount of testing to make it sure it works,
and compare that to the number of people with a 68000, '020, or IIx, IIcx,
or SE/30 who will actually upgrade, you can see why this decision was made.
I have an SE/30 myself, and I'm kinda bummed about not being able to run 7.6
on it, but I'm not gonna piss and moan about it. For one thing, I'm not sure
that any new features from 7.6 on would even be worthwhile on my old black
and white 16 MHz box.
On the other hand, as long as you have a 32 bit '030 or '040, you can count
on support into the next century, even after Rhapsody, the native only OS
coming out next summer, debuts. Amelio made that pledge during his Macworld
keynote. This may surprise people who think Apple should still be developing
for every box it has ever made, but some of the Pmac owning readers of
comp.sys.mac.system don't like how Apple still supports any 68K Macs and think
they should stop. I'm really glad to see that the Q840AV I just got will be
supported until I get ready to replace it with a Pmac, most likely in 18 to
24 months.
-- 
Randy Shackelford                                 
shack@frii.com