Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS

[shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <5534t9$8ur@darla.visi.com>, Nathan Mates <nathan@visi.com> wrote:

>   A3 was _dead_ and gone by mid-1981. The Apple III+ had all of the
>features (and more) of the Apple III, but none of the flakiness, but
>the public's perception of Apple III machines was that they stank, and
>it didn't sell well at all.

Apple III pluses debuted in Dec '83 and were produced until mid '84.

>   Funny you should mention the Lisa. Better than the original Mac,
>but killed off to support the Mac. [Hmmmm. Where the heck have we
>heard this before? The killing of the Apple II was not the only
>misguided business decision to come out of Apple by a long shot.] When
>the Mac took off, the Lisa (renamed as the Mac XL) became real
>popular.  Why? Expandable, more powerful, etc. However, Apple had
>closed down the Lisa manufacturing lines, and they didn't reopen them
>in spite of *obvious* demand for Macs better than the original 128K
>box.

The Lisa didn't sell worth a hoot at $10000 a copy. Ever used one? The system
isn't as good as the early Mac system. They run at a whole 5 mHz, a little over
half the speed of the first Mac. Even when the Lisa 2 came out and the price
was cut in half, it was twice as much as the first Mac. Not too hard to figure
out why it didn't sell. It didn't make sense to call the Mac XL a Mac since
it still ran Lisa's OS and apps. I don't have any numbers handy but I don't
think it sold so hot, and lasted about as long as the III plus. 
Another reason the Lisa didn't sell is that a GUI based system was ahead of 
its time in '83, much like laserdisc was in the late '70s.

>>1.  Support Macintosh only.
>>2.  Support IIgs only.
>>3.  Support Macintosh and IIgs.
>
>4. Provide a bridge between the A2 and Macs. Make a 'Apple //e on a card'
>in 1985, not 1991, and sell it as a nice migration path.

No Mac in '85 had an expansion slot.

>   Apple took the worst route, supporting Macs and then throwing
>tidbits to A2 users that were too little, too late. The hardware for a
>//e on a card was designed with the GS-- the 'Mega II' chip with a 6502
>and some ram _is_ a //e. So, why'd they take 6+ years to get around to
>doing such a thing?

The LC came out in '90, four years after the IIgs. That was the time that
Apple wanted schools to migrate from IIs to Macs, hence II compatibility
in the model most likely to be used in schools.
-- 
Randy Shackelford                                 
shack@frii.com