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From: dudek@utai.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: support for older machines
Message-ID: <4161@utai.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Nov-87 12:46:09 EST
Article-I.D.: utai.4161
Posted: Fri Nov 27 12:46:09 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Nov-87 02:46:52 EST
Reply-To: dudek@ai.UUCP (Gregory Dudek)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 41
Keywords: 64K ROM support 128K IBM yecch
Summary: 

There's been a lot of talk lately about whether Apple is
making it's older machines obsolete too quickly.
  I would certainly agree that Apple has to move forward &
hence will unavoidably come out with products that are not
back compatible.  In fact, it's been the desire to remain backwards
compatible that has motivated many of the architectural features
that cause the IBM PC to be so DISLIKED among the technical
community.

  On the other hand, much of IBMs success is due to it's continuing
support for customers who depend on "obsolete technology".  My
impression is that by *discontinuing support* for older
Macs, Apple is making a potentially serious mistake.  Despite the
elitism prevalent in this group, there are many people who LIKED
the 128K Mac.  Some people I consult with use the Mac ONLY for
small-time word processing and were quite happy with MacWrite 2.2!.  
One is doing serious accountancy with a 512K Mac and ancient 
software .  Many "real people" just want to get their job done on a 
reasonably stable system irrespective of the latest technology.
  It would imaging that many of the oh-so-desirable business users are
of this mentality.

  I would have though Apple could keep supporting older configurations
like the 64K ROMs for a few more years without that much trouble.  
That doesn't mean drastically new software, just hardware support 
and maybe a few minor software fixes to existing packages.  NOT because
it's going to earn a tons of money or even great goodwill, but
because by cutting these people off it earns a lot if ILL will.
If I have to go telling people that they have to shell out $1.3K
for an upgrade (that's what it costs here, before tax) just to get 
continuing support, I can guarantee some will be quite displeased.
Their only alternative may be to lose the option of support -- an
unpleasant prospect.
  Perhaps Apple wants to encourage people to upgrade by explicitly
not coming out with upgrades to 64K ROM software.  That's the
kind of blackmail that I don't think will pay off.
  Greg Dudek
-- 
Dept. of Computer Science (vision group)    University of Toronto
Usenet:	{linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsri!dudek
CSNET:	dudek@ai.toronto.edu	DELPHI: GDUDEK