Re: New Apple II (was Apple's next move ...)

[mhmccabe@aol.com (MH McCabe)]

A new Apple ][ huh?

Since I'm still running an Apple //e, the idea intrigues me.

What I miss about the early 1980's is the dearth of entry-level computer
systems with ANY capability for serious work.  In 1982, I bought a
Commodore VIC-20 for about $299 (including cassette I/O).  Within a few
weeks, I had ported all the BASIC and FORTRAN programs I'd been running on
a Univac mainframe (mostly computer science classwork.)  That cheap little
machine got me through school without ever again sitting in front of a
keypunch!

Three years later, I bought a real gee-whiz 128K Macintosh - I loved the
Mac, but it wasn't practical to write the "quick and dirty"  programs I
was used to.  It also cost about 16 times as much as the Vic-20.

Right now, you can't buy a new  "off-the-shelf" general purpose computer
for under $500 in either the PC or the Mac World.   How is some kid going
to buy his dream machine with a paper-route or lawn mower?

If you ressurect the Apple ][:

1.  Keep it cheap.  Under $500 for the basic machine.

2.  Document it.  Include the schematics, parts list, and ROM listings.

3.  Don't surface mount anything.  Socket the chips.  Sell PARTS. 
Hardware hackers tend to blow things up.

4.  Ship it with BASIC for the casual users and a good machine-language
monitor for purists.

5.  Don't intentionally limit the machine (remember the PC jr.?)

6.  Put some slots in it.  Keep the bus protocols (and speeds) within
reason.  Don't use any fancy proprietary stuff.

7.  Bright idea:  instead of letting Bill Gates write the operating system
(or programming language), call Ron Nicholson - maybe he can sell you a
license for Chipmunk BASIC.  (By the way, I think Bill is an absolute
genius.  He's just having too much of the pie.)

If you read this far down, thanks.  I'm probably nuts, but I miss the
variety we once had in microcomputers (remember TRS-DOS?).

Micheal H. McCabe