Re: Building the Modern Apple IIGS

[Declan MacLeod <declan_macleoid@hotmail.com>]

In article <391348.ADFDOCJI@news.telusplanet.net>,
 Simon Williams <*email*@*luddite.ca*> wrote:

> On Sun, 09 Mar 2003 14:56:30 CST Marsha <menacechgo@aol.com> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Putting an MP3 player in a Victrola doesn't make it a Modern Record Player, 
> > it makes it a Victrola with an MP3 player in it.
> > Distressing a cabinet to make it appear antique does not make it antique. 
> > Hot-rodding the inside of GS case does not still make it a GS.
> 
> From a hot-rodding point-of-view, the "Modern Apple IIgs" would be a legit
> name... Look at any rodded Model T and you'll probably find that the entire
> drivetrain has been replaced with Corvette parts and chances are most of the
> body is now fibreglass... it won't drive like an original Model T, but you're
> not going to call it a 'vette.
> 
> Personally, I think putting a PC in a GS case will make for a very nice
> looking PC, though I think something along the lines of the Commodore
> C-One board would be more functionally similar to a real GS.

I tried several approaches to replying to this, but I'm finding it hard 
to put into words why it doesn't 'feel' right.  I think it boils down to 
the fact that in my mind the GS and Windows are diametrically opposed to 
one another, and nothing you can do to Windows makes it "in the spirit 
of the GS."  If you tuck your GS-cased PC out of sight, there's now way 
to tell that you're not running a run-of-the-mill PC -- the user 
experience will be the same.  I think user experience defines the 
computer, not form factor, and it sounds like the user experience on 
this will be 100% PC.

As for the Corvette powered T-bucket -- sitting in it there are still 
plenty of sensory cues that you are not in a Corvette, and they are 
"Model T"-ish cues -- the shape of the passenger box, the sight of the 
flat windscreen, the style of the fenders (or the tyres if you're 
running open-wheeled) -- things like that.   With this however, the only 
cue is the case.  When you're working on a computer, how often do you 
look at the case?

To carry Marsha's comment one step further, I've seen a PC in a Victrola 
case, and it still ran just like a PC, and very little like a Victrola.

I think that to retain the GS spirit the proposed box would _have_ to 
run Linux.  The Apple II was born out of experiment and hobby and a love 
of tinkering, exactly like Linux...  I think this to me would be the 
"spirit" of the GS.


My USD2/100....