Re: Joe Kohn to moderate csa2 (was: METAL is now FREE!!!!!!)

[isc10327@nusunix1.nus.sg (ONG TAT-WEE)]

j.l.walters (bird@cbnewsd.cb.att.com) wrote:
:
: My two children (boy and girl) used to fight and say the most horrid
: things to one another. One time I asked them, "Would you dare say these
: things to any of your friends at school?" "No," they both said. "Then
: why do you say these things to your own flesh and blood?" No answer,
: however, things got much better after that.
: 
: I guess my point on this is, "We are all Apple ][ siblings and if we
: can't get along..."
: 
: Kind Regards,
: -- 
: 
: 		Joe Walters att!ihlpm!bird, IH 2A-227 (708) 224-7189
: 		To know, and not to do, is not yet to know

	Joe, you hit the nail.  Just today, Lim Thye Chean and I were
wondering along similar lines: why can't the Apple II community be more
united???  At a time like this when the Apple II is slowly going down,
why can't the current users and developers unite and build a niche
market for ourselves?

	Apple Computers definitely isn't going to give us any more new
Apple II CPUs.  In GenieLamp (Pro?), Jawaid, Matt and Mike were arguing
over the Memory Manager.  Bill Heinemann refuses to hire Jawaid to take
part in his Avatar project.  Seven Hills and Procyon are at odds (pretty
obvious if you've read The Manager's read me file).  Recent fights
between Switch It and The Manager (notedly Henrik's party and the
Americans).  West Code and Byte Works being attacked 'coz they
experienced delays in delivering their products.  Etc.....

	Folks, pause for a moment and imagine: what if Jawaid, Bill, Henrik,
Mike, Matt and all the Apple II gurus work together?  We could have the
ultimate Avatar system with the coolest operating system that's System 6.0
compatible, supports pre-emptive multitasking (GNO) and graphical user
interface (The Manager); with built-in Turbo Rez and fast CPU (Zip GS).
We would also have the best application software available if everybody
will just work together.

	All these bashing around isn't going to help things.  OK, I know
that The Manager and Switch It are direct competitors, but that's no
excuse for Seven Hills and Procyon to sour their relationship.  The
Apple II community/market isn't strong enough to take this yet.  Just
look at the Commodore 64.  In all technical aspects, the IIgs wins hands
down, yet the C64 is able to support a strong niche market in games and
several good magazines (ever noticed the April issue of A+/Incider is
only 48 pages? have you ever seen GS+/A2 Central in the local
newsstand?); why the C64 magazines not only appear in my local
newsstand, they can even afford to tag along 1/2 demo disks!  Is our
IIgs really that weak compared to a C64??  I don't think so.

	I feel that if we could just exhibit the Apple II sibling spirit
and encourage more programmers/developers, the 1 million Apple IIgs and
5 million Apple IIe/IIc/II+ can have a market that's as strong as, if
not stronger, than the C64.  Besides, we have one thing the C64
community doesn't --- the Avatar project!  Let's help make it a success,
it's our only hope of getting a more advanced CPU.

To quote Joe's last sentence:

I guess my point on this is, "We are all Apple ][ siblings and if we
can't get along..."


    ___ \   ___  / ___  ___/ |         / | David Ong Tat-Wee
   /    /  /    /      /     |    |   /  |
  /    /  /    /      /      |  / |  /   | Internet:
______/ ______/    __/      ___/ ___/    | isc10327@nusunix3.nus.sg

ps: There are STILL Apple II users in Singapore and Malaysia!