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Re: Yay! Finally got myself a IIgs!

heuser.marcus@freenet.de wrote:

Michael J. Mahon wrote:



In the later machines, the info migrated to the Technical Reference
Manual, but it was still freely available to all.



"freely" as in without additional costs for the user?


As in "free speech", not as in "free beer".  ;-)

More seriously, as in "without a contract and a non-disclosure
agreement".


This was inevitable, as the market expanded beyond enthusiasts, but
even the IBM--imitating the Apple II in this way, too--provided
Microsoft BASIC in ROM.



Didn't know that, thanks for correcting me.
On the other hand it even had a cassette port - BASIC on cassette may
have been a bit unlikely for this machine and its intended customers...


Few people remember that the IBM PC originally supported diskless
configurations (again, like the Apple II).  ;-)


The early market for personal computers was almost entirely people
who were interested in them as programmable devices.  Although this
market was much smaller than the eventual market, it was "presold"
on the benefits of a computer, and it seeded the later market as it
developed demonstrations, games, and applications that showed members
of the larger market that a computer might be fun and/or useful to have.

In some ways, the closed nature of the /// prefigured later machines
(especially the Mac) that were intended to be used, not programmed,
by their buyers.



Which is of course true and still continues.

See the new home theatre PCs that begin to "flood" the market -
pre-configured for largely only one application: The media center.
Not to speak about mobile "smart" phones with Windows variants...


No argument that this is the current mass market for computers, and
will remain so.

I note, however, as an owner of an MCE 2005 system, that they are
still *far* from being as "turnkey" as users expect of a consumer
electronics device.  And it amazes me that Microsoft acts like they
have years before they need to get this right--perhaps another "iPod"
takeover market for Apple?


Such machines were completely dependent for their success on a willing
cadre of application providers who would address the needs of the consumer
market.

By breaking significantly with the programming model of the Apple II,
the Apple /// essentially reset its application provider base to zero,
which was a very poor decision for a "second product" dependent on
that provider base for value.



Which was a great learning example for IBM and Intel in the years
following the original PC. They provided upward compatibility at all
costs (even the dreaded A20-gate) and cemented the success of the PC.

So maybe the unsuccessful Apple /// had bigger consequences for Apple
than thought.


An interesting point.

It certainly took the "IBM PC-alikes" a long time and many iterations
before they finally figured out that if their machine didn't run
Flight Simulator, then it *wasn't* a PC!  Many potential clone-makers
tried and failed before Compaq showed them what they had to do.

-michael

Parallel computing for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."