Forget flames, NUKE 'em!

[tombo@mail.on-line.co.uk (Richard King)]

I haven't read Mr John C Dvorak's article, since I don't see many
US-published Mac-rags over in the U.K., and I'm not very interested in
the machine. Even so, I feel that the evident annoyance he has caused
bears comment.
 
All people who write as he seems to, putting down the Apple II line, are
guilty of treading on our dreams. Perhaps those dreams are futile and
will never come true, but for us, at least, they MATTER! We have chosen,
for our various reasons, to stick with a machine we like and know, and
understand. It isn't popular, we know, and all of us have had some moron
asking us when we're going to get a 'proper' computer, but we put up with
that kind of rubbish.
 
But I do sometimes wish that it was still permissible to demand
satisfaction, at dawn, with swords, from such people. What they don't
understand is that we are remaining faithful to a world which _they_
killed, with their MBAs, and copy-protection, and greed, and their
blasted 'marketing strategies'.
 
I'm just an aging hippy, I am well aware, but I mourn the loss of the
free and friendly exchange of skills and art that were the hallmark of
the micro-computer world in the earlier days. A world for which the Apple
II line is ideally suited, and which it represented better than any other
machine. A world which produced Steve Wozniak, or which he helped to
produce - I'm still not sure which.
 
I resent the ignorance and greed which is the driving force behind the
Unmentionable, or the Raincoat, not to mention the lack of 'quality' that
pervades them. 
 
Ask yourselves - how many soi-disant 'computer-people' could write even
the simplest program, and make it work? Answer: a small percentage. How
many of 'em could write a _useful_ program, and get it to work? Answer: a
vanishingly small percentage. How many could write a major program, which
really used the facilities available, pushed the machine to it's limits,
and still could get it to work? Answer: hardly anyone at all. And only
people who _can_ do the latter, and have done so, have any right or
grounds on which to criticise. People such as Mr. Dvorak are generally
not among this group. Doctors wouldn't ask the janitor for his medical
opinions, and we should treat comments which are clearly made from a
standpoint of vast ignorance and/or malice with the contempt they
deserve.
 
There are _very_ few people who can be bothered to gain any _real_
understanding of how computers work, and what they can or could be made
to do, so most of the talk about them is produced by people who are - put
bluntly - too piggin' ignorant to be able to make any useful comment
about anything much more complicated than their last bowel-movement.
 
We GS and Apple II users are a stubborn, self-opinionated bunch of
people. We're not swayed by majority opinion, nor glossy adverts. We
cannot be blinded by jargon, and we have enough skill to spot the
strengths and weaknesses of software and hardware without assistance from
marketroids. We know that MicroSoft, Borland, Apple, IBM and almost all
the rest of the computer trade are selling snake-oil, and we're not slow
to say so. 
 
Forty Meg for a compiler? Are you bloody joking? And you mean to tell me
that I have to run it on a '486 or '040 at 66MHz or better to get
reasonable performance? Lord God above! You're serious!
 
The Marketroids and Manglers, not to mention the Button-counters and
Ambulance-chasers, don't like that. It spoils their plans and makes them
have to do some actual work. But worst of all, it makes them realise that
they cannot control everyone - and believe me, they want to.
 
I don't want to live in the world they have planned for us - and I don't
think the rest of us do, either. So let's make damned sure we don't have
to, by making certain that there's enough awkward bits to give us some
cover. I'd be the first to admit that the GS isn't perfect, but I would
add that it is good enough to act as a focus around which we can
construct a small portion of reality which is to our taste - a reality
which recognises that it isn't the machinery you have that matters, it's
what you do with it. It's a reality that exists on Internet in cba2, but
not on CompuServe, for example.
 
Specifically, I think that we have to get the Avatar into production
(preferably via a co-partnership between the customers and the
producers), along with TurboRez, Animasia, and other projects. 
 
WE MUST NOT LET OUR DREAMS DIE FOR LACK OF DEVELOPMENTS AND COHESION.
 
WE MUST NOT ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE BULLIED AND CAJOLED INTO ACCEPTING A
SUB-STANDARD REALITY.
 
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Obey little, question much - Walt Whitman | The only thing my GS hasn't
Specialisation is for ants - Lazarus Long | got is a go-faster stripe.
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