Re: Any more "Newbies" out there???

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Simon Williams wrote:

>I guess what really attracts me to the A2 is that you can actually get
>into the innards and brains of the thing and poke around at this and
>that -- as opposed to Mac or Windows where anything beyond tickling
>the interface puts your computer at great risk (if, like me, you are
>an ignorant tinkerer). Not only that, but you can actually program the
>little bugger after a few hours of light study... now that's what I
>call 'user-friendly'...

Amen to that.

Remember the mid-80's Mac commercial where they showed a PC
and a Mac, and as the PC was shown, they dropped about a foot of
manuals onto the desk beside it.  As the Mac was shown, a single
thin manual plopped gently onto the desk.  Enough said.

Now consider actually _programming_ a computer to do something
interesting (to you).  Both the Mac and the PC would have an entire
bookshelf crash down beside them, while an 8-bit Apple II could
have about five thin manuals drop.  One of my problems with the
Apple IIgs (when used as a IIgs with GSOS) is that about half of
that bookshelf comes crashing down again.  ;-)

The "openness" of an open system has much to do with its easy
accessibility to would-be programmers, vs. professionals or proto-
professionals.  The original Apple II had that kind of accessibility
that bred thousands of hackers, a fair percentage of whom succeeded
in doing some really interesting things with their machines, without
the motivation of "making a living" from it (for that, they had their
day jobs).  A smaller, but still significant percentage, even made
hardware hacks for their machines.

Of course, as the machines (of all kinds) proliferated beyond the
hobbyists and technoids, they became mostly "user" machines:
appliances which ran only canned software.

And as GUIs conquered userland, mastery of the toolbox began
to require commitment and investment beyond the realm of
most hobbyists (just as LSI has made consumer electronics
inaccessible to tinkerers without advanced tools and education).

Such is the price of success and proliferation...

-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
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