dont forget the subject here. my 2c worth

[rmtmaine <rmtmaine@texhoma.net>]

Cant we all just get along and trade stuff in peace.

    Until two weeks ago when I had the fortune of purchasing an Apple
//e of the princely sum of $3, I had not even thought of my apple 2 days
in some time. I was amazed at how much software I had kept, and how fun
some of it still was. I got out the old apple 2c that I had been keeping
under the bed, and I found the imagewriter 1 that I still say is the
most indestructible printer ever built, and I have been having more fun
than I have had in many years with computers.

    I then took a look around for sites and info on the apple2, and to
my amazement there are a few.  There are even emulators written for it,
I was shocked.

    Then I found comp.sys.apple2 and about ten guys with sticks up there
asses about some 20 year old pirated software. All that should be said,
is who gives a rats ass. I was 15 when I got my first apple 2 in the
late 70's, and if you think that I didn't xerox a few programs back then
you're loopy. I still have some of it, and it still works just as well
as it did the day I copied it.

    Back in the good old days I had several disks of copying software:
Locksmith, and Copy 2 Plus, and Quick & Dirty, and Nibbles Away, and on
and on. We did it then, we do it now. They sold the copy programs to
teens, like giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys and telling them
not to do anything foolish. The first thing we did was copy the copy
program and give it to a buddy.   
 
    Only now things are different, there are but a few, we are a
minuscule minority of computer users programming and using 20 year old
stuff that few people seem to remember.

    For god sakes, just copy the stuff and chalk it up to one more
person getting a bit of use out of something. I think copying a piece of
apple 2 software today isn't going to amount to a hill of beans. This
stuff was all written off years ago. I've even got Macintosh software
that wont work on anything higher than system 5 that I'd be glad to copy
for you with absolutely no sense of remorse. If a company is unwilling
to support the software, then let the users "public domain" it. Stick it
on an FTP site.

    This is the Apple 2 we are discussing here, let's not forget that,
and in the beginning all software wanted to be free. We harnessed it for
a while, and now it is time to put it out to pasture.

Jeffrey

RmTMaine@texhoma.net