Re: Woz interview

["steve at crackershack dot com" <steve@remove.crackershack.com>]

Linux has even grown to the point where it is impossible to be a "hacker"
without having a full and complete understanding of the uber-geek internals.

I never understood mac users, as every app was plain vanilla, the "hardware"
and "os" were hidden from the user, and there was no "command line". It was
as if Steve Jobs actually went out of his way to eliminate the "hacker" from
the mac.

Of course, this was a good thing, as it standardized the interface and
eliminated alot of stupid-user errors (del c:\windows /s)!

However, the PC in the mid 80's was really a hackers paradise. Software
cool, simple and fun. You could mix and match hardware. How cool was it when
8 bit digitized sounds was standardized with the SoundBlaster Pro???

PC's are still mix and match, but the OS's (even linux) has become bloated
and inaccessible. There was a pure joy dropping to the basic prompt on an
apple II under prodos, creating a basic program and saving it.

All these things are possible, and easier to do with Windows, but the fun is
largely gone.

I dream of running GS/OS on modern hardware. It would be soooooo cool.


"Roy Miller" <millers@inetnebr.com> wrote in message
3BCF0F3E.4F53EEDE@inetnebr.com">news:3BCF0F3E.4F53EEDE@inetnebr.com...
> Robert McAllister wrote:
>
> > Doede wrote:
> >
> > "Steve ends with: 'I really would like a chance to recreate the Apple II
> > fun someday.'
> >
> > -----
> >
> > I don't believe that same leap or high or whatever you want to call it
> > as far as the personal computer itself is possible now. PC s are so
> > universal now, mundane, not like back in the Eighties, or for those of
> > you who got a real early start, the Seventies. Now it seems as though
> > everyone has one, like toasters. Processors get faster and storage
> > capacity increases, and someone is always finding a more efficient way
> > to do things (except for Microsoft), but there doesn't seem to be the
> > potential for that same "amazement" that at least I felt back in the
> > Eighties when I got my //c (not that I was ever any kind of computer
> > geek as you can tell from the questions I ask, but it was pretty cool
> > back then).
> >
> > Then again maybe I'm just nuts.
>
> Not nuts, but I think you missed Woz's point. In context, I think the fun
he
> was referring to was the fun in creating the II, and, perhaps, the fun
> people had in exploring the II. Macs and PCs are too complex (esp. the OS)
> for much "tinkering" types to accomplish much. The II was a hacker's
> computer, that begged for people to open it up, and dig into it, push it,
> expand it. That spirit of adventure isn't really possible with OS X and
XP.
> Linux.... maybe.....
>
> Roy
>
> >
> >
> > -+-+-+-
> >
> > Rob McAllister
>