Re: quicktime - dibeng.dll

[Cyrus Roton <croton@ridgecrest.ca.us>]

On 7 Apr 1998, Mitchell Spector wrote:

>     When you consider very few Macintosh owners are knowledgable
> about how their systems work or what it is doing (or even care
> in the first place), favor buying pre-packaged systems with every
> part inside choosen for them; And then need programs to hand-hold
> them through the most _trivial_ of tasks, don't think you Apple
> would be more truthful saying "Don't Think" rather than the
> current "Think Different" motto? :-)

Actually, very few users of any personal computers are knowledgable about
their systems. I know; I have had to help a lot of them. As for
hand-holding them through trivial tasks, Windows is becoming more that
way. So far, though, installers on the mac are simpler to use than most
installers under Windows. What do you mean by the most trivial of tasks.
Installing software in a PC has never been "trivial". Installing software
in the IIGS generally is more complex than installing in a IIe (with hard
drive).

With the increasing complexity of operating systems and the proliferation
of "third party" extensions and control panels, Mac users are finding they
need much more understanding in order to install, use, and avoid software
conflicts.

I have an Apple IIe with 1Meg memory, 20Meg hard drive, one 3.5 drive, two
5.25 drives, mouse, joystick, RGB video, serial printer, parallel printer,
and a Rocket Chip accelerator. Nice machine. Does not take much knowledge
to poke in a program disk, like Print Shop, and make a greeting card.
Takes more knowledge to use AppleWorks, but, still, not much knowledge of
the operating system or hardware. Of course, if you want to write software
(BASIC and assembly), as I did, you must learn quite a lot about the
system and the firmware. I wrote software because there was none available
to do the tasks I wanted to do. I droped my desktop publishing project
when Printrix and Publish It came out.

When I got a Mac Plus, I mostly stopped using the IIe because I was
much more productive with the Mac. Over the years since, I have moved up
through several Macs and now have a UMAX with 603e processor and 240 Meg
clock. I have used Windows and MS DOS. I respect PCs, but I much prefer
the Mac. And, it is not because I am not knowledgable.

The IIe gets used in maintaining the user group A2 library, and in
printing the mailing labels (I keep the labels in the parallel printer and
paper in the serial printer).

I have built interface cards and peripheral equipment for the IIe, and
have made the machine do things the designers probably did not envision.
The Apple II is capable of doing far more than has yet been discovered.
And, programming it is far easier than programing a Mac or a PC. I am
pleased that the A2 still lives on and has a large following. When someone
makes disparaging remarks against the A2, I point out that the A2 still
can do everything it was designed to do and can still run every bit of
software ever written for it. Of course, that statement is rather obvious,
but it takes most people by surprise and makes them stop to think about
it.

There are a lot of arguments about whether Apple should have continued the
A2 series. When the IIGS came out, people said "that's what the Mac should
have been".But don't forget that when the automobile first came out, and
when it malfunctioned, people shouted "get a horse". But, as we now know,
there was no way to update wagons to equal what the auto became. The II
series could never have been updated to equal what the Mac has become.

I would not part with my IIe. But I use my Mac most of the time. I know
that there is more software and more options available in the PC line, and
that PCs a less expensive than Macs, but I use PC only when I have to, and
not by choice.

To all you Apple II users, I say good for you. Keep the II alive forever.
It still is useful and is a long way from obsolete yet.

croton@ridgecrest.ca.us
Cyrus Roton
Ridgecrest Apple User Group
Electronic Musical Instrument Technician