Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <54ootb$61t@dismay.ucs.indiana.edu>,
Gregory Loren Hansen <glhansen@copper.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote:
>I think that's right.  The IIgs was running at 3.5MHz, 

   Nah, that's the SNES with a 65816 at 3.5Mhz. The 65816 on the
motherboard of a GS runs at 2.8Mhz, but due to RAM refresh cycles and
the like, etc, you only see an effective speed of 2.5Mhz.


   What bugs most people is not the lack of Apple II support *now*
(when it's far less of an issue), but lack of support when (1) Macs
came out, and (2) when the GS came out. When the GS is outselling
macs, despite near zero publicity and advertising, you'd have to be a
technology dweeb with your head up your *** to not try and support it.

   Apple's position on the Apple II has been "thank you for buying
that machine; let's go do something else." since the time of the Apple
III in 1980. Despite constant alienation, Apple IIs were widely
popular beyond anyone at Apple's comprehension, and they've endured.
Some form of bridge (such as a //e card for the Mac SE or whatever)
would have done wonders for narrowing the gap, but that never
happened.

   Speaking of older computers, a 386 or 486/25 may not be able to
play most of the latest games or OS from MickeySoft, but good, clean,
and fast OSs like Linux and other un*x variants for PCs have given
them a use to geeks. One of those boxes with 4-6MB of RAM does wonders
as a small ethernet <-> ppp router for an appartment with a few
computers.  [And you can also null modem to them from a GS if you
don't have GS/TCP (that's not out yet, but since I help debug it, I've
got a copy), which is generally real darn cool] Funny, that's what I'm
doing with my appt right now. :)

   The _good, clean, and fast_ qualification is what the Apple II OSs
have, and why, in my opinion, they're still more usable a long time
after the hardware for them debuted. With modern OSs like Windoze and
MacOS putting feature creep above those 3 characteristics, of course
people will be tricked into thinking their computer is "too slow" when
it's really the OS's that's at fault for the percieved slowness.[1]

Nathan Mates

[1] Of course, this kinda breaks down when games also require a fairly
beefy computer as well. As long as they're doing a darn fine job with
the actual gameplay and look/sound, I don't mind requiring a good
computer for that. However, if Mickeysoft comes out with Tetriz'95
requiring 16MB RAM and plays no better than the original, their
programmers need to be taken out and shot.

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