Re: PLEASE STOP THE MAC AND MICROSOFT MESSAGES

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

Randy Shackelford wrote:
> 
> Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
> 
> : >Discussing current company happenings is at least as topical and useful as
> 
> :     How so? Current company happenings are about a computer system
> : that is completely foreign to the Apple II. Granted the Macintosh
> : shares same traits in common: It is produced by the same company
> : (the rainbow Apple logo on the front of Apple II's certainly makes
> : that apparent) and in the case of the Apple IIgs, they share many
> : similar hardware components (i.e. ADB bus, Z8530 SCC for serial
> : and AppleTalk, floppy drives) and similar types of software
> : (i.e. a Finder application, Toolbox in firmware for a Mac-like
> : OS and software, etc).
> 
> One doesn't need to have the absolute latest product from a company
> to be interested in what the company's up to. I stand by my claim that
> news about Apple Inc is topical here. This is by definition a group
> about Apple products so discussing the company in any way fits here.

Only if it has to do with Apple II.  ClarisWorks becoming AppleWorks
is on-topic.  Apple selling 100 PowerMacs in one week is not.

Also, if you want to talk about Apple's situation, try leaving "Mac"
sales out of it as well as "new xMac product."  "Apple is doing
fine this year" is OK but not "Apple scores big with iMac."

> :     Alright, perhaps at least the IIGS is not so foreign, but the
> : fact remains they are completely *incompatible* computer systems.
> : Can I run Macintosh software on a IIgs? No. Can the Macintosh run
> : Apple IIgs software? No. (Nevermind software emulators, for very
> : obvious reasons). Can I plug Macintosh slot cards into the IIGS,
> : or plug IIGS slot cards into the Macintosh? No. (Nevermind things
> : like floppy and SCSI drives, or modems and keyboards, that too
> : for obvious reasons). If you argue "Yes" to any of these because
> : of software emulators or generic computer peripherals, you open
> : the door to just about every other computer system out there!
> 
> : >the rounds of woe-is-us-Apple-rooked-us-II-owners rigmarole that
> : >start up every so often.
> 
> Following up would work better if those lines hadn't been split up. My
> point is, people don't bat an eye at posts which say how evil Steve Jobs
> or how the company rooks its customers etc. But if anyone says anything
> good, certain people flip out. Like I mentioned elsewhere, that endless
> thread about Jobs didn't raise any such complaints.

Jobs and Apple "rooked" Apple II users, making it Apple II related.
Today's Apple and Apple sales have nothing to do with Apple II.

> : >Funny your mentioning five years. My most recent Apple products (Q840av
> : >and Pbook 165) are five years old now. But I read comp.sys.mac groups
> : >just like anyone with a brand spanking new Apple box.
> 
> :     That's neat and I guess something you can be proud of (I'm not a
> : fan of replacing my computer ever couple of months to stay "current"
> : either) but your Quadra and Powerbook are off-topic for this group.
> 
> Aside from talking about how the new age floppy controller can cause new
> boxes to reject 800Ks at times, whether they have old Sony style drives
> or the new kind, is topical. Aside from that, they rarely are. The point
> I was making is that all of my Apple products are old and support is
> rapidly drying up. (E.g. Quicktime 3.0 doesn't run worth a hoot on my
> 840av even though Apple claims an '020 running OS 7.1 can run it. That's
> a laugh.) But having ancient products doesn't mean I don't want to know
> what they're up to.

But they are not Apple II related.  If there was an alt.cars hierarchy,
it would be inappropriate to post Ford Escort material in
alt.cars.mustang, correct?  The only reason to talk about Ford in such
a group is because they still sell a mustang.  Apple no longer sells
the Apple II.

> : I can understand wanting to bring them up though--as a Pentium user
> : there's lots of cool stuff I do with the machine that I'd like to
> : share with the people on comp.sys.apple2, but I'd imagine very few
> : want to hear about MPEG-3 sound compression, Photoshop, Windows 95,
> : Voodoo 3Dfx graphic cards, or the latest software emulator. :) Some
> : probably would want to, but there are dozens of groups for that (of
> : course it would be a different group of people than those I've come
> : to know on comp.sys.apple2).
> 
> But there's no way to make that fit the scope of this group. I contend
> that saying Apple has had two profitable quarters and that its stock
> is at 30 points is in the scope of this group, which is devoted to
> discussing a particular Apple product.

So by this reasoning, if Mitch and I have PC Transporters, we can talk
about Windows 95 and MPEG because, gee we could once run current (in
the past) PC stuff on the Apple II.

-Scott G.