Re: You are Here! So: How did you get into Apple II Computing?

[bguenter@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de (Boris Guenter)]

: In article rubywand@swbell.net writes...
: > 
: >The May FAQs release has led to an email discussion about various
: >lead-ins to becoming an Apple II user. So ...
: >
: >How did you get into Apple II computing?

Well, I think I've had my first encounter with hardware in my early
years when my family bought me an Atari VCS. Although I spent a lot of
money for cartridges, I was soon disappointed with the rather fixed
games on them. It was my uncle whose influence caused me to choose an
Apple II Europlus as my first computer, without him I would probably
have bought a C64. My uncle was a real A2 addict and he helped me to get
familiar with my A2 very soon. This was my golden age, when I had plenty
of spare time. I wrote patches and small programs and learned to like my
machine.
 
But six colors, a simple beeper and 64K memory became insufficient after
a few years. The desire to move to another machine appeared in both my
uncle and me. My uncle had an Apple IIe which was extremely expensive in
these days due to Apple Germany's A2-hostile marketing policy. The Apple
IIgs was even more expensive when it came out, and never widely
advertised. My uncle has heard of it, but never seen one. Rumours
claimed that the gs was not 100% compatible with the old software, so my
uncle decided to move to a completely new machine which was not compatible
with anything else (what a logic!).
 
In the next years, my uncle bought both an Amiga2000 and an IBM AT. I have
spent some time with the Amiga and I had to admit that it had great
graphics and sound abilities. The GUI was crude compared with the Finder
and good utilities were rare. But I was still young and I have played some
of the best games on this machine, I had noticed however that many
so-called-new games were simply old "Invaders" or "PacMan" clones with
improved graphics. Even as a young boy, I learned soon that new ideas
were rare.
 
Compared with the Amiga, the AT was a very boring machine. No GUI, no
music, 16 color graphics and complicated installation procedures. Even my
uncle said he used this machine only for his database management. To be
honest, he preferred AppleWorks until the end.
 
I had not been immune to new machines, too. I bought a Colecovision
console in the hope to upgrade the system to an Adam computer, which was
only Vaporware. I got an used C64 which has had a lot of good games with
graphics and music, but even with a disk speeder, loading them has been a
painful procedure. Nevertheless, this system has been very popular in
Germany and I have had a lot of fun with it. But finally, the C64 ceased
to exist and the huge software library became worthless.
 
In these years, I've met students who reminded me about the Apple IIgs
again. I started to read American A2 magazines and was excited when I
learned more about the II gs capabilies and the available supply of new
hard- and software. This was the time when Applied Engineering and other
glorious companies were in full business. The Amiga was great, but the
fact that the designers have intently omitted backwards compatibility
made me angry. Now I had seen that there was a machine which WAS able to
use my complete software library. I worked very hard for one and
two years later, I had my first IIgs.
 
To be honest, the IIgs has been the best and most cleverly designed
machine of all of the computers which I have worked and played with.
I soon realized that this machine was too good to be sold with profit
compared with the Mac and I was not surprised when the Apple II line was
cancelled several years later.
 
In these years I became addicted to Douglas Adams' books. I got the
message that too much bureaucracy, greed and vigilance can kill almost
all intact systems. In my college, they shoved so much Vogon Poetry and
useless theory into my brain cells that I was unable to develop fun and
creativity with my own computer anymore (and I have been the best
programmer in my school).
 
In these years, my alter ego Marvin the robot became more and more
imminent. I have seen enough bureaucracy and arrogance for a lifetime.
I tried desperately to develop some fun doing some useful work. I tried
to grow some endangered plants and orchids, literally the last chance
to see, and the Vogons told me that "nature preservation is not species
preservation". I tried to inform the people about the dangers of
genetechnology in the food production and the Vogons told me that
genemanipulated organisms are basically the same. I tried to offer my
help to the remaining Apple II users and the local Vogons told me
"to get a real computer". And last but not least my caring but
demotivating family told me "Have a sense of propoportions"...
 
I learned soon that that there was absolutely no point in appealing to
the reason of such people because they don't have any! One of my favorite
book authors, Terry Pratchett, speaks of a "special form of silliness
which only very intelligent persons have" : egocentric like a tornado,
tactful like an avalanche, stubborn like a battle tank!
 
Fortunately, there are always people like Rennie Cummins of the Pure Food
Campaign or Dr. Tom who are still able to light a candle in the darkest
Vogon hold. Hippie types who are still able to radiate an aura of love
and hope and civil resistance in this world, which I call only
"The Asylum". I like these guys!
 
The IIgs was backstabbed by its own company. Why should they waste time
with two seperate product lines. Why should they sell something to
penniless hitchhikers?? The Apple II company has had the largest customer
base in the world and they have sacrificed it for temporary profits.
Now the Apple II is down at the base again and the cycle is closed.
Some years ago, I would have said that people should learn from the past,
but I have seen enough reality and I know that certain people will
never learn. So I will recommend an entirely different approach...
 
I know that there are many greedy managers and mindless bureaucrats just
waiting for the day when the Apple becomes powerful again, so they can
loot and destroy it another time! Big Bill has already bought Apple stocks
and told the people at Apple Fest that "they should forget the illusion
that Apple could only win if Micro$oft loses. My advice is that everybody
should try to make another infiltration of the Apple company as difficult
as possible.
 
I would recommend that the big stock company Apple Inc. should be
transformed into several limited liability companies which closely work
together. Since the shares in a limited company can't be bought by
everybody, it may be much easier to keep nasty guys outside of its
boundaries. And since several companies are much more difficult to
control, another Vogon takeover will be much more difficult.
Small is beautiful!
 
Now all the guys in csa2 know how I came back to the Apple II. I will
gladly offer my software library, my help and my advice for everbody who
is interested in it. This is my advice for the future of the Apple II
company. All csa2 readers may think about it for a while...
 
               Greetings to all nice hitchhikers in the A2 universe!
 
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`The Guide was something sacred and special          __
But that, thought Ford as he ducked and     |\/| /\ |__||  | | |\  |
weaved his way down through the building,   |  ||__||\  |  | | | \ |
was about to change. And they had only      |  ||  || \  \/  | |  \|
themselves to blame.'
 
Need Apple II gs software? Visit ftp.uni-kl.de...
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