Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!princeton!udel!rochester!bbn!oberon!cit-vax!elroy!ames!claris!apple!voder!tolerant!procase!bill
From: bill@procase.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: New System and Upgraded 512E's
Summary: Another perspective
Keywords: 512E Dove Upgrade System 6.0
Message-ID: <3d36116b.12160@espol>
Date: 12 Jul 88 20:29:00 GMT
References: <4301@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> <3265@polyslo.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@procase.UUCP (Bill Arnett)
Organization: proCASE Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 47



In article <3265@polyslo.UUCP> dorourke@polyslo.UUCP (David M. O'Rourke) writes:
>		...
>  System 6.0 does not run on a 512Ke!!!  The sound manager, and hence the
>sound CDEV make use of the extra bytes that are present in the clock chip's of
>the new computers, i.e. the Mac Plus, SE, & II.
>  System 6.0 also contains a new Serial Driver that uses the some features of
>the *SLIGHTLY* different serial hardware present from the plus on.
>  So the bottom line is that you can't use 6.0 on a 512Ke, even if you have
>the memory to do so.
>
>***Flame on!!!!!!!
>		... (flames deleted)

Well, I've been on both sides of this issue now (having spent most of my
career working for hardware manufacturers and now being the owner of an
apparently obsolete 512KE). There are a lot of good arguments on both sides.

There are many good reasons why a manufacturer may want to cease support of
an old machine; these reasons may not always be known or understood by the
user community, they may even be secret.  Anyone who has worked for a computer
manufacturer knows this.  As the number of different old machines increases,
the effort to support them all becomes increasingly burdensome.  Old machine
support takes time and manpower, sometimes lots of time and manpower.

Obviously, owners of those old machines want support forever.  Owners of old
Macs can also justifyably claim some extra credit for supporting Apple in the
bad old days of the 128K.  It seems churlish and mean to cut them off now that
the Mac is doing so well.

Its a trade-off.  The manufacturer makes the decision.  He must weigh the
benefits of putting his engineering effort
into new stuff for new machines versus continuing support for old machines.
There is never enough engineering staff or budget to do it all.
Users must understand that their old machines can not be supported forever.

The trick, it seems to me, is choosing a psychologically appropriate time
to cut off the old machines.  And making it clear to the users why it was
necessary and what the benefits to the community as a whole are.

In this particular case, I'm not sure what Apple's reasoning was.  I'm
willing to withhold judgement.  Can comments, Apple?
-- 
  Bill Arnett             {ucbvax!tolerant,hplabs!hpda}!procase!bill
  proCASE Corp., Santa Clara CA
  408/727-0714