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

[irsman@iastate.edu (Ian Schmidt)]

In article <1993Apr17.175728.1487@nuscc.nus.sg> isc10327@nusunix1.nus.sg (ONG TAT-WEE) writes:

>	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?

The Apple II by its nature attracts a highly diverse cross-section of users.
I bought my GS soley for its sound capabilities, whereas others have bought
it for a variety of different reasons.  The Apple II is different things to
different people, and so of course it will cause arguments between various
factions of users who want it to go different directions.  Even within factions
there is often massive disagreement...ie sound users are split into
*Tracker/MIDI/other. 

>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.....

Of course, Jawaid wants the GS to be a powerful multitasking computer, and
the Apple guys want it to be a powerful single-tasking computer.  Since
neither side is likely to give, of course friction will result.  SI and TM
are competetors.  As Jawaid so brilliantly posted in his reply to the 
DoYouKnow guy, business is war and always will be.  Although, Seven Hills'
press release was far from professional, given that it was nothing more than a
thinly disguised all-out attack on Jawaid and SwitchIt!.

>	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.

I don't think the Avatar is gonna happen.  That's life.  

>	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

[ranting on the C64 deleted]

There's one big difference: the C64 is still being manufactured and sold, and
is still a big seller in Europe.  Hence there is a lot of software for it.

>	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.

Like I said, the Avatar is a pipe dream at best IMHO.  We should put all our
efforts into helping the GS, not some mythical machine that will never
exist.

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

Blah.  This is entirely too idealistic.  Idealism doesn't work in the real
world, and you'd better get used to it yesterday.  The GS has been
discontinued.  Recent advances have given PC clones abilities the GS formerly
only had (the Gravis UltraSound in particular is an Ensoniq, only better than
the GS its 16 bit and has a MEG of DOCRAM!).  I don't see the Apple II party
going on much longer, but it's been a fun ride and probably will be for a
while yet....

>    ___ \   ___  / ___  ___/ |         / | David Ong Tat-Wee

-- 
        Ian Schmidt - Two Meg Software: irsman@{iastate.edu | aol.com}
"I will choose a path that's     | Author of AudioZap, MODZap, and more.
 clear: I will choose free will" | Co-author of SoundConvert and DeskTracker.
 - N. Peart, 1980                | Coder and Musician for the GS<>IRC.