Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS

[GUDATH@EZINFO.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH (Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat)]

In <55346l$217@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca> jeffr@bnr.ca writes:

> In article <28OCT199612481191@vax2.concordia.ca>,
> Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> >
> >I see software emulation (or a hareware card) acting as a bridge, until you
> >finally convert totally over to the new system (Apple II->Macintosh). I doubt
> >any people with GuS will be using AppleWorks GS, when they can use MS-Word
> >or PageMaker on the same machine.
> 
> I'm gonna break netiquette, and say a big fat "Me too!".  I agree with that
> statement.  If you've got a PowerMac, why run IIgs software?  What IIgs
> software is better than the latest Mac stuff?
Mee too..to some degree.

IMHO, there are truckloads of extraordinary games and other stuff that have no
equivalent on the Mac. I can't tell you how we felt when Alien Mind was up and
running on the Mac. You may say that this is only a game, but hardcore Apple II
fanatics would sell their house, car and wife (or husband) for such an 
experience. There are many other software products that take the IIgs' 
technical limitations into
account and therefore have a certain appeal you can see with Claris software at
most. Apple IIgs software is lean and efficient, and I don;t think MS Word is a
good substitute. (Not saying people should or will do their word processing on
a Apple II emu...but I like the idea of writing all my further correspondence
with ShadowWrite :-) ).

OTOH, I strongly believe that it was necessary for Apple to devote their
ressources to the Mac. (And bit to the Apple II, too :) ) Even though the Apple
IIgs could easily compete with early Macs, you should have a look at the
Windoze world to see what a mess total backward compatibility can mean. The
move from 68k Macs to PowerPC was possible because Mac software was running on
way more abstract layers compared to on-the-metal software on Apple IIs. I'd
love to see a FTA demo (yeah, with Speedy Loader!) on a Mac, though..

- bozo