Re: trying to get an Apple II GS going for fun...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"Greg J. Buchner" <buchner@tcfreenet.org> wrote:

>David Empson wrote:
>
>> Did Jobs have anything to do with the languishing of the IIgs?  I think
>> he was gone from Apple before the IIgs was released (I seem to remember
>> that John Sculley was in charge at the time), and Jobs didn't come back
>> until after all Apple II development was canned (1993).
>
>You know, I thought he also didn't have anything direct to do with the
>canning of the Apple II line.

He planted the seeds.  See my followup to David Empson's post.

>Does anyone out there really think that Jobs would have allowed an
>Apple II out the door that treaded on the Mac's territory?

Jobs went ballistic when he discovered the Apple II division was
stealing Mac engineers to work on the mouse tools for the IIGS.
He did NOT want the IIGS.  But by this time, Jobs was already close
to getting fired by Sculley, so he no longer had the power to stop
the IIGS.

But you have to remember the dynamics.  At this time, Jobs had
already sunk Apple into a death-embrace with the Mac.  Thus,
even after Jobs' ouster, the IIGS did not get promoted.  It was
allowed out the door then left to fend for itself because Sculley,
unlike Jobs, knew that even though Jobs had piloted Apple
toward a Mac future, the Mac of Jobs (closed 9" screen plus
Mac in a box with little memory) was dead.  He took the profits
from the Apple II line, including the IIGS, and instead of R&D
for the IIGS or marketing for the IIGS, Sculley used that money
to jump start the Mac.  But he could only do this by killing Jobs'
Mac and reinventing the Mac in the IIGS' image.  Complete
with separate color monitor, color GUI, ADB bus, and slots.

>Heck, at the time, I don't think he would have allowed the Mac SE
>or the Mac II.  They'd be getting away from his 'vision'.

That's correct.  That was Sculley's doing.  He knew the Apple II
was the better architecture (open, color, slots, expandable) but
he had to push the Mac because Jobs had already put Apple on
a one way path with that line.  His solution was to borrow from
the II, steal the II's profits, and reinvent the Mac in the Apple II's
image.  Of course once the new Macs went out the door and
turned in a profit, Apple's deliberate killing of the Apple II was
already nearing the point of no return.