Re: Did A2Command Miss the Boat?

[Kevin Dady <kevin@hackaday.com>]

On Sep 20, 2:20 pm, Payton Byrd <plb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have to say that I've been astonished at how little feedback and usage I have seen for A2Command (a2command.codeplex.com) since I released the full version 1.0 back in February.  In over 6 months of being in a stable state, there have been only 204 downloads of the disk archives (that includes people who downloaded each archive format).  There have been 110 downloads of the 140K DSK image, which I would assume would be pretty much the number of unique downloaders for the project.
>
> I'm wondering if Oliver and I missed the boat on something major concerning A2Command.  It's sister project, CBM-Command (cbmcommand.codeplex.com) enjoys huge success despite having competitive projects in the CBM scene.  As far as we know there is nothing else like A2Command available for Apple II systems.  
>
> My theory is that A2 enthusiasts don't use their old hardware as much as CBM enthusiasts do and thus there's simply not as much demand for aggressively using the mass storage options available for the A2 platform.  
>
> I find this to be at odds with the number of CFFA cards that seem to be flying off of the shelf, so to speak.  I'm wondering if maybe buyers of CFFA could be given a 140K floppy with A2Command and that would improve usage of A2Command.
>
> Anyways, I don't want to sound like a glory hound here.  I want people to use A2Command because it's useful, not to stroke my ego.  A2Command is a better product, IMHO, then CBM-Command (it's more focused, has better functionality, is faster, 80-columns, etc.).  I'm wondering what Oliver and I could have done differently to improve the usage of A2Command, or whether it's simply too niche at this point to really develop a following.

Well, as a single disk // user after all this time (my dad bought a //
e pretty much when it came out) most of my collection does not need to
be shuffled around, I currently have a //c so mass storage is not a
thought, and as others have pointed out copyII has been burned into
our habits over the years. (though now that I am more aware of your
program I would be more apt to try it)

Out of all my retro computers (a dec386 laptop, a pentium latoptop, 2
mac's and a trash80 I got somewhere in the 90's) I use my //c the
most, but with modern software on modern machines I am much less apt
to do all the work on the 25+ year old drive and almost as old disks,
and this is true with all my machines, and when you have a nice little
java program and emulators running full blast speed to get stuff done
it (IMO) lets you get to the fun faster and the need for a fully
featured file management program native to the machine diminishes.

Now I do remember you releasing this, but admittedly forgot. I will
check it out again... maybe it will save some hassle