Pleasantly Surprised

["John" <volareman@yahoo.com>]

I'm incredibly impressed with the usefulness of  the Apple IIgs... Even in
2002, even in 8-bit mode. I am new to the GS, but this will definitely be my
vintage machine of choice for the next few decades. I know this is preaching
to the choir, but here's what I really like about the Apple GS right now:

1. Slots. HOW foresighted are the slots on the II+/e and the GS! A round of
applause for whoever fought for the slots during design-time.

2. Focus Hard drive. Holy crap, I read what other people on the group were
saying and they're right... this is just a perfect deal... $69 and you're
set (can you imagine showing one to somebody in 1981 who just plunked $3,499
on a 5MB ProFile?)

3. The ADB connections on the GS.  I was scoping Ebay for a keyboard with
the "inverted T" arrangement compared to the stock GS keyboard,  and then
realized I had a broken Mac Performa in the closet with a wonderful
keyboard. It plugged in the GS and worked perfectly. Normal cursor keys, woo
hoo!

4. AppleWorks (text mode). I'm a keyboard guy, even in Windows, and
AppleWorks just makes sense. I love the VERB-NOUN philosophy compared to the
NOUN-VERB of other GUIs (e.g. COPY then select Text, compared with select
text then choose the COPY command). The VERB-NOUN philosophy fits perfectly
with my love of command lines (heheh). I'm currently only using 3.0, but
look forward to upgrading to 5.X and playing with macros etc.

5. Internet. Nope. Haven't tried it yet, no big plans for a while on the GS.
Maybe in a couple of years.  I just like the idea of a machine disconnected
from everything, standing on its own. No viruses. No people bugging for
chat. No spam.

6. ADT. Slick method for moving stuff back and forth.


People need to start looking at these machines like vintage automobiles. Am
I going to use it for my daily driving? Nope. Does my new car have more and
better features? Yep. Does that make the vintage car less interesting or
desireable? HECK NO!

--John