Re: I'm at a loss for words

[swhite@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu (Steve White)]

In article <54gi5v$531@client2.news.psi.net>, smentzer@pacbell.net (Steve
Mentzer) wrote:


> Well, I also had an ibm pc/xt, pc/at, pcJr, clone 286,386,486,pentium
> and guess what... I have *pirated* warez sitting at home. I have yet
> to buy a copy of Ultima. And guess what, IBM PC warez have *always* been
> easier to pirate than c64 or apple games. Any programmer will know that this
> was due to the fact that you could do non standard sector schemes, nibble
> counting, half tracking/spiraling and many other things with an Apple II
> that would prevent the successful duplication of software!


It certainly didn't stop you, did it, thief?


> THE THING THAT KILLED APPLE WAS APPLE COMPUTERS' ARROGANT NON-LICENSING OF
> APPLE II ROMS, NON-EXISTANT DEVELOPER SUPPORT AND OVERPRICING.


Developer support: Apple was the first company to make its entire firmware
and hardware schematics available to casual users. Reference manuals were
free or at low cost. Apple branded assemblers were available very early
and were used by many, until they were supplanted by better third-party
tools. BASIC was included in the machine. Apple Pascal was available at a
low cost. Apple was the one of the first companies to seed selected
developers with cash and equipment. Since most developers at that time
were small operations, Apple's policy made sense.

If Apple is to be criticized for neglecting developers, that charge isn't
valid until the late 1980's, and then in regards to the Mac. Over the
early life of the Apple II, Apple easily had the most forward-looking
policy towards developers. Compare their actions to that of Texas
Instruments when TI came out with their little computer.

Overpricing: It's called a market economy. Apple charged what the market
was willing to pay. Not that this ever stopped you, eh pirate?

Licensing: Apple is the first computer company to license its ROMs to
other parties, since it has now licensed the Macintosh ROMs.

The IBM PC ROM wasn't licensed, it was cloned by Phoenix and other
companies using "clean-room" techniques. That cloning had to survive a
stiff legal challenge from IBM. The first couple generations of cloned
ROMs were NOT 100% compatible, to the grief of those who bought early PC
clones (TI, Tandy, etc.). CPM machines didn't have a ROM for anything
other than the most low level BIOS stuff. Atari, Commodore, TI, etc. NEVER
allowed their ROMs to be licensed.


> Get a clue. If you are going to make an argument, make sure your point is
> valid...


YOU get a clue, and some facts as well, thief.




steve