Apple's ways

[johnw_94020@yahoo.com (johnw_94020@yahoo.com)]

Why does Apple keep changing the architecture of their computers?  I
mean first there were Apples/II's, III's, that ran ProDos.  Software
written for this architecture coult not run on a Mac without a
emulator (such as Bernie the rescue).  Apple ProDos hardware (floppy,
printers,etc) could not work on a Mac without a ProDos compatibility
card which are hard to find.  Then in 1998 came the New World Mac's
which did not include support for legendary Mac hardware
(serial,SCSI,etc)  If a New World Mac user wanted to use his/her
hardware they needed to purchase an adapter/expansion card.  Then in
2001 came Mac OS X, which is UNIX based.  All previous versions of
MacOS, were not UNIX based, so this meant that software had to be
written just for OS X, and in most cases this meant thaat OS X
software was incompatible with previous versions of Mac OS.

PC's on the other hand have followed a different route which I think
is one reason why more than 85% of the computer market in PC based. 
Most PC's use the X86 processor, and it has been this way for a long
time.  Most PC's include support for legendary hardware (serial,
floppy,PS2,etc), and probably always will.  This means that a MSDOS
based program that ran on a 386 under DOS 6.22, in most cases will run
under a recent OS with a Pentium.  But my ProDos based games from my
Apple II days will not run under the recent Mac OS X without a OS X
emulator of some kind, which do not exist (to my knowledge).

John
johnw@Southcoast.net