Preserve the Apple II in Rhapsody

[phytanb@leonis.nus.sg (Bernard Tan)]

With Apple having now announced its plans for the Rhapsody OS, with its 
Blue box which will emulate the Mac OS, I wonder whether the Apple II 
community  would support the idea of petitioning Apple to include an 
emulation of the Apple II as an integral part of Rhapsody?  This could be 
another "coloured" box within Rhapsody.  (Perhaps a Green box, though Yellow 
would really be more appropriate as the colour of the Apple II.)  

It would be for the Apple II community to debate which version of the Apple 
should be preserved in this emulation, though I think the 128K platinium
Apple - the last //e - is most appropriate.  Of course, GS enthusiasts would 
argue otherwise.

Apart from such an emulation which is completely executed in software 
within the Rhapsody OS, the Apple II could also be preserved as firmware 
wihin the ROM Bios, or even as hardware, perhaps as a single-chip //e on 
the Mac motherboard.

Whatever the manner of emulation, the official preservation of the Apple II 
within all future Mac operating systems or ROMs would be a fitting tribute 
to the machine without which Apple would not exist as a corporation today.  
It would also be an appropriate penance for Apple's shoddy treatment of 
the Apple II and for not giving it the attention it deserved and which 
might have kept it still alive today.  

Bernard Tan
Department of Physics
National University of Singapore
phytanb@nus.edu.sg