Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!ucsd!ucbvax!ANDREW.CMU.EDU!jm7e+
From: jm7e+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU ("Jeremy G. Mereness")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Apple's commitment
Message-ID: <8XD6mly00VA-AUlUgI@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 25 Sep 88 03:49:05 GMT
References: <8809201111.aa15129@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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Rick, it is very easy to sympathize with the big bureucracy when you are inside
it.

It is not so easy for those of us outside it who see the company's effects.

I will restate, however, by original post. The Apple //c+ is not a joke.
The Release of it at this point in time is a joke.
a laughable one, reflecting the neglect that Apple Computer Co. has had for the
// series.

The least Apple could have done was release a 16 bit //c+, if for no other
reason than to demonstrate a commitment to Apple's 16-bit future. Otherwise,
the move for a new //c was fruitless, as, in the the real market, one can get a
powerful PC setup for less than the //c.

And the //c is useless to schools, who are interested in //e's because of slots
and the simple utility of being able to secure the machine to the desktop. The
//c has no means of being protected from theft. And still, the majority of
Apple // software, barring the //gs, is on 5.25 disks. And what kind of
commitment does Apple demonstrate when they do not offer memory upgrades for
the //c+? Can you imagine IBM not offering some means to expand the memory of a
member of the PC line? Sure, the XT may be gone, but you can buy memory for it,
because you need it. Apple apparently is content to keep the //c+ limited.
Apple has never left such necessities as memory up to third parties for the
Macintosh. This, to informed, educated users like myself, is a demonstration of
Apple's less than enthusiastic view of the Apple //.

Apple is pushing the Mac very hard in Universities, even though there really is
not an adequate Mac for the job. The Mac // is too expensive, the SE is not
satisfying. Many here at CMU would like to see better equipped Macs emerge that
could fill the void of inexpensive workstations. Instead, Apple makes a deal
with our ignorant Humanities department to sell them Mac // systems that don't
have enough memory to run some of the existing software developed here. I
wonder whether this is a move that Apple has already pulled on the schools!

From what I have been able to observe, Apple has been content to rest on the
hold it has had upon the K-12 market since it first seeded the schools with the
//+. I can assure you that this will not last forever as techology marches on
and the // falls farther behind because some people at Apple are fearful that
the // may "compete" with the Mac. Ridiculous. If the // competes with the Mac,
than the Mac is certainly not good enough to compete with the other machines in
its league

I am frustrated by this because it represents wasted potential. Lost
opportunity. Apple's PR campaign has made the // into an overpriced Speak and
Spell for children, while telling parents that as soon as the child reaches
college age, s/he should dump the // and buy a Mac. This need not be the case,
if for no other reason than people who di not like Macs will buy IBM clones.
The // does not need nearly the same kind of OS support as the Macintosh, just
as the PC does not. The // sould thus compete directly with the 8088 machines
if it was given enough speed, memory, and storage. But to this day there is no
// with a built in hard drive and 640K+ memory standard, a configuration that
MS-DOS machines have been comfortable with for years.

So, Rick, as the defender of Apple policies on the //, I give ask you this
question. Why has the Apple // been ruled out as a menas of competing in the
real-world computer market and left to pick up the pieces in the K-12 market,
something seeded back in the days of the //+? Whay is there no faith in the //
as a small business machine, or low-cost college student's computer? It is
capable of this now. a 7.6 MHz GS+ would run rings around an 8088 while still
appealing to those who do not like Macintoshes. And even offer the option of
experimenting with a Mac-like environment. Why has this resource been ignored?

And just out of curiosity, do people in your office at Apple use //'s for
day-to-day work, or Mac


Capt. Albatross
jm7e+@andrew.cmu.edu

============
Apparently hoping in vain  for a  GS+... (*sigh*)
disclaimer: These opinions are mine and will remain so until more intelligent
or insightful or informed people are kind enough to show me the error of my
ways because in the barbecue of life, a mind is a terrible thing to baste.