Re: What has changed in the Apple world last 6 months?

[wbdesnoy@ucalgary.ca]

Ernest <ernestls@home.com> wrote:
> Do iMac or G4 users tinker?  It seems that any system today is not really
> built to be tinkered with very much

It never ceases to amaze me how people would, and how some continue to, design
cards for the Apple II series.  That sort of tinkering involves a more intimate
knowledge of the machine than most people would care to acquire.  My impression
is that most tinkering done today, which requires that depth of knowledge, is
is done at the software level, through projects such as BSD and Linux.  There
are some people working on "modern" hardware, such as the Z-80 and 68000 based
calculators from TI, as well.

>> but unlike IIGS users who have moved on to the Mac and seem to snicker at
>> the IIGS

> I think that the only people who snicker at these old computers are people
> who've never worked with them, as either an original user or as a collector.

I have gone on to the Mac, and would never even consider snickering at the
IIgs.  It is a fine machine, and the fact that some use it as a glorified IIe
simply attests to how useful its predecessor was.

> I'm fascinated by old computers, and I see that time as an extremely
> exciting time because there were no real standards, and no real dominance by
> any one design or OS - very unlike the situation today

I fully agree, even with that comment about Linux (and BSD) starting to turn
things around.  In the PC world, GEOS lives on through NewDeal.  In the Apple
II world, we finally have ethernet.  Hopefully that new package deal from
ByteWorks will bring about a revival in software development.  Those exciting
times never really ended, it merely quieted down for a spell for new ideas to
emerge.

Byron.