Re: OMG!

["Kelli Halliburton" <kelli217@crosswinds.not>]

> I get the picture. You aren't willing to pay for your play. So long as it
costs
> you nothing but time (and your time must really be cheap) you'll take
whatever
> you can get. You'll steal because you WON'T pay. And you killfile those
who
> point out your lack of morals because it offends your seared conscience.
You
> applaud those who give you want you want, and don't want to be paid for
it, and
> you sneer at those who are willing to give back to those who give to them.
> There's a word for beings like you Paul - parasite.

People have made similar comments about me, based on my earlier posts to
this thread.

You know what? I DON'T HAVE ANY software for my three Apple IIgs systems.
Know why? Because I don't want to jump through flaming hoops to get it.
Figuring out how to download stuff and get it transferred to one of my
systems is not "beyond" me, but it's more trouble than I want to go to for
the sake of nostalgia.

If I could go to the corner software store and buy boxed software at what
*I* consider to be a *reasonable* price, I would. That would be much much
easier than the ministrations I would have to perform in order to transfer
downloaded software, pirated or legitimate.

But I also recognize that what I consider to be a reasonable price
(AppleWorksGS for $5, GS/OS for $20 [I know it's a free download -- but it's
a download], SIS for $20) may not be what someone else considers a
reasonable price, nor would it likely be a price that anyone could
successfully make money with.

So, yes, I'm lazy, and I'm cheap, and I am also not so blinded by nostalgia
and obsession to see that no matter what you can actually get it to do in
2001, the Apple II series' time in the sun has passed. One could say the sun
is not rising on the A2, but setting -- but I would go one step farther and
say that it has already set.

I keep an interest in A2, C64, TRS-80, CP/M... but I harbor no illusions
about the state of these systems. They're all fine machines, and they were
all great in their time. Their time has passed.

Joe Kohn, I love that you can still make a living at selling Spectrum and
SIS. Allelec, I think it's fantastic that you still sell hardware upgrades
for the A2. But neither of you believes that this state of affairs can
continue indefinitely, right? I know Allelec sells more than just A2
hardware. Joe, what's your contingency plan? When the revenue statements
start sliding downward past the point of profitability, then past the
break-even point, what are you going to do? If you don't have a plan, get
one.

In two years the II will be 25 years old (1978, right?), and the IIgs will
have not been sold for 10 years (last sold in 1993, right?). Is it really
realistic to continue trying to charge people to support a platform that is
that old?

I'm not trying to talk the market down. I'd love for someone to find a huge
stash of shrinkwrapped NOS (new-old-stock) IIgs systems that had been
forgotten in a warehouse somewhere, and be able to sell NEW IIgs systems. Id
love for hardware development to continue. The ideas about the 65832 and the
new motherboard design and the efforts to adapt the II platform to modern
technology -- I hope these ideas see realization and sell and make their
designers some well-earned money. But it's not happening, from what I can
see. All I see happening right now is **** ****'s work on the II ethernet
card, to compete with the LANceGS, but fit and work in any II. If this
design is well finished, it deserves to be a great seller for anyone who
still has a need or desire to put their II on the net.

I'd love for the market to be self-sustaining. But... is it? Can any of you
really say that the commercial Apple II hardware and software market is
self-sustaining? Can you say that you *know* that it would be
self-sustaining, if only abandoned software were made unavailable and people
had to pay for new development? If hardware developers didn't have to absorb
their R&D costs and only charge for parts when they sell their hardware?

Quantum Cat, even you are not so rabid and frothing at the mouth to see the
light of day. "Fuck off, Kelli," indeed.

Get over your damned selves. I won't say "nobody cares." I will say "not
enough people care to pay, to make it worth your while to charge." Joe Kohn
and SSI notwithstanding.