Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS

[fozzie@macatawa.org (Adam Devereaux )]

In article <558a6g$1ss@europa.frii.com>, shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy
Shackelford) wrote:

> In article <28OCT199612481191@vax2.concordia.ca>,
> Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> 
<snip> 
> >>Memory was still expensive even when the ROM 3 came out. It went through
> >>the roof in mid '88, when a set of eight 256K DRAMs was ~$120. Gotta keep
> >>in mind the time context. No faster processors were available, memory was
> >>expensive, and hard disks were unholy expensive. It's easy to forget that
> >>in these days of $200 gigabyte hard disks and $100 16 mb SIMMs.
> >
> >    True, I remember that all too well (I recall paying several hundred
> >dollars just to add 768K to my Apple IIgs Memory Expansion Card in 1988).
> >Still, why was it the Macintosh II, SE and Plus continued to ship with 1MB 
> >RAM as standard in 1988, while the Apple IIgs shipped with only 256K? It
> >was no less expensive to supply those machines with that amount of RAM.
> >As well, the II and SE had support for internal hardrives which you had
> >the option of buying, why didn't Apple do the same for the Apple IIgs?

Wait a minute! IIgs only shiped with 256k for the first little while, with
rom 00 wasn't it?
Then they put in a card that had 512k on it, but could hold up to 1meg..
which would bring you to 1.25meg.

Which the ROM 03 sold with anyways..

> Another case of present-centric thinking. There were no 2.5" hard disks or
> even 3.5"x1" drives in '86 or '89. Of course, a 5.25" wouldn't fit inside a 
> IIgs. Power supplies still took up a lot of internal space too before they
> were shrunk down.
> 
> As far as memory amounts, remember that an SE cost >$3000 and a Mac II >$5000
> in '87. So putting a meg in a box jacked the price. You wouldn't have wanted
> a 1 mb IIgs box to top $2000 I bet.
> 
> >    So that argument holds when you just focus on one computer, but then
> >falls to pieces when you see the _same_ company shipping their _other_
> >computers with these supposedly "unaffordable" extras. I see a bias here,
> >when a Mac Plus could ship with 1MB, but not a IIgs. The GS *required* that
> >1MB of RAM for running software just as much as the Mac Plus! Also, keep in
> >mind Apple bought things like memory and hardrives in bulk, so they paid 
> >much less than the public. I don't buy these excuses...
> 
> But the list on a Plus was $2495 or so and it was $999 on a IIgs. I recall
> people saying they paid $1400 to up a Plus to 4 mb in those days.
> 
> >>If you want a new up do date computer with Apple II compatibility on a card,
> >>all you need is a Powermac with a PCI Apple II card to go in it. Would
everyone
> >>be happy if there were such a card?
> >
> >    I wanted an enhanced Apple IIgs, not a Macintosh. The two are not the
> >same, even though they may externally look and (to some extent) even feel
> >and act the same.
> 
> It's really beyond me how anyone who has used Apple products would want to use
> anything else. I think a PCI powermac which could run II software would be
> what a IIgs should be today. Able to run the old stuff, but unencumbered by
> having the core hardware compatible with 10+ year old hardware.
> -- 
> Randy Shackelford                                 
> shack@frii.com