Re: Is there a version of Lynx for the Apple II/IIGS?

["Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net>]

> I think part of the problem is with the users not just programmers.
> The truth of the matter is that the Apple IIGS users of today
> are not the same as the Apple IIGS users of yesteryear.

I agree that it's true, we are not the same as those of yesteryear, but
coming from Atari 8 to PC, back to Apple IIgs and Mac SE, I have to
also add this. I am totally devoted to Apple II and what it was and is.
I am working diligently to improve not only the IIgs but the IIc and
//e and II+. I have 4 projects going at once, 2 of which I work on for
hours out of each day. I, too, run into the proverbial brick wall when
I post and ask for advice from the alleged "older, bought mine for
$1000's group". Yes, I dug mine out of a dumpster because I saw
some value in it. I didn't even hear of Apple II until a few years ago.
The first Apple I ever saw was a Mac classic. I had no idea what
the Apple II's were.

> The Apple IIGS users of yesteryear thought of their computers
> as premium machines.  We were willing to spend money on
> them or spend hours hunched over HyperCard or HyperStudio
> to produce our own.  This is the way you and I think and all
> those who actually BOUGHT their IIGS from Apple, not some
> thrift shop.
>
> I might anger some thrift shop IIGS user by saying this but
> we ARE different.  There is obviously something different
> about someone who spent $800 to buy a IIGS CPU unit
> (and more for a hard drive, floppies, RAM, and monitor) than
> someone who spends $10 at a thrift shop to buy the same.

I'm not angered, not even perturbed. I consider myself lucky to
even be able to find an Apple II, surprised even. Thank God the
thrift shops saw them as something worth keeping long enough
for someone to find them. They could have well thought of them
as junk, but they didn't. More people have them than I even dreamed
would at this point.

> For us, the IIGS was a real computer and more than that,
> we IIGS users actually used our computers as our main
> PCs for many years.  To do word processing, play games,
> go online, do work, do school, everything.  I did ALL the
> written work for my years in college on my IIGS.  And,
> being "premium" computer users we were even more
> responsible than many of the teenage geeks who use
> today's PCs in that we actually BOUGHT our software
> instead of seek out "warez" (I'm not talking about the
> dying days of the IIGS and the old flame wars but back
> in the golden days of the IIGS when AWGS was new
> and InCider and A+ magazines were on the shelves).

I must say that had I discovered Apple II earlier, I too may
have used mine for everything as well. I went thru every Atari
there was trying to find a machine that COULD do it all. I
ended up going to PC and still couldn't do it all. I only wish I
could go back and discover the IIe, IIc and IIgs.

> But today, the Apple II and IIGS has a lower status than
> the Amiga, the Atari ST, even the Commodore 64.  Even
> the unpopular Commodore 128.
>
> Why?
>
> I think the answer is simply that we REAL IIGS users
> have been overrun by the thrift shop Apple II users.  The
> thrift shop folks are here because of the Apple II's past
> success.  The schools flooded the thrift shops with their
> Apple IIs.  Thus, what was once considered a premium
> computer is now considered a cheap dirt computer.

I must disagree, the biggest downfall of the Apple II is
incompatibility. All those other machines could use each
others hardware and software to a certain degree much
easier than the Apple II. Even today there is no way to
access an Apple II disk on a PC. Most others can be.
Even the hardware that made that possible is gone.

> There were far fewer Amigas and Atari STs than Apple II
> so they have retained a sort of "premium" collector
> status.  The C64 was so cheap in its day that many got
> thrown away but now there are few enough left and a
> strong enough following that its status is higher than
> the Apple II.
>
> So there you have it.  It is a THEM against US thing.
> THEY have overrun us.  A couple of years back I had
> tried hard to make new users think the C64 way.  To
> see the fun in maximizing the hardware.  But inevitably
> for every one of my posts there were 10 from the thrift
> shop crowd and so the Apple II user base simply
> shifted.
>
> The way THEY use their computers makes them more
> prefer emulators than the real thing.  That's why
> emulators for the Apple II are far more popular than the
> ones for C64, Amiga, or Atari ST.

I actually prefer the real machine to an emulator myself.

> I mean just look at the reaction to my "MP3 conversion
> to the IIGS" article a while back.  We old timers
> shared our tinkering knowledge and experiences and
> had fun doing it.  Now doing so just attracts criticism
> from the thrift shop crowd.
>
> Talk nothing about monetary gain, even enthusiasm
> gets shot down these days in the Apple II world.

It may sound a bit rude, but most of the shooting down
I receive is from the very enthusiasts of which YOU speak.

Thank you.

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprises
http://garberstreet.netfirms.com



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