Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uoft02.utoledo.edu!desire!cse0507
From: cse0507@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: A low blow from Apple
Message-ID: <1257.26faaa35@desire.wright.edu>
Date: 22 Sep 90 05:03:01 GMT
Lines: 49

It seems that Apple has done a pretty thourough job of destroying the GS.
When it first came out I had high expectations and bought one of the Woz editions
(complete with certificate). The PC 500 showed the GS was in third place in
units sold beating out all the MS-DOS clones, all the Macs, and taking thrid
only to two IBM models. It had such great potential, but somebody at Apple
decided that schizophrenia was bad news for the company, and somebody had to
go. Since the Mac was the "new" machine, it was the machine to give the GS
the boot. Apple stopped coming out with hardware upgrades. There has not been
a new GS in the 3 years I have had mine. The Mac on the other hand seems to
have a new model every 6 months. The ROM 03 machine doesn't count since only
tools and other minor upgrades were made. I can still do everything on my
original GS that an 03 machine can. With rumors of Apple introducing a GS board
for the mac line, they now have the excuse to completley stop production of
the GS since there will be an alternative. Education types a ranting since the
wishy-washy signals from Apple over the IIs future are leaving them hanging.
Schools who used to buy 95% Apple II are now faced with MS-DOS. Why invest in a
computer line that has such a dismal looking future. Sure Scully paid lip
service to the II, but there was no action to back it up. IBM on the other hand
saw the break in Apple's stranglehold of the education market are now bending
over backwards to get in. They are giving away thousands of dollars in software
and computers taking a good loss on the deal, but deep pockets knows it will be
worth it. Apple's response seems to be to try and offer lower priced Macs to
schools as an alternative. Big deal. Schools have already invested untold
millions in software, computers, teacher inservice for the II line which may
now be flushed. One of the greatest joke ads Apple put out showed a kid going
into her elementary classroom, having her picture scanned on what looks like a
Mac IIcx and an Apple scanner and printed. Yeah right. One school system I
worked for had a goal of getting one Apple IIe or c system in each classroom
(at about $650 ea.) not to mention a $4,000 setup. Maybe in CA where Apple
gives all those computers away. Anyway, the point is that I still use my GS
almost dailiy and it still does everything it did back when I bought it, but it
could have done so much more. I'm tired of having to scrape and search for
companies that still produce for my machine. I feel like an Atari owner (for
those of you familiar with the migration of most Atari development to Europe)
owning an Orphan. I remember back in my II+ days getting Softalk Mag. where
companies were clamoring to sell me there new stuff each month and interesting
people were doing amazing things with the same machine I had. It looked a lot
like the Mac mags. do today. But Softwalk went bankrupt and suddenly I was
getting A+, then A+ joined incider, and now A+/Incider is getting so thin it
looks like deja vu from Softalk just before going under. I can tick off the
list the signs of a dead machine. Dealers who don't even mention it, software
companies who ignore it, and the size of the magazines covering it shrinking.
Even comapnies with great products for the GS are dying. Applied Ingenuity is
gone, Sierra Online no longer will produce any new titles for the GS, The
company who made Sword of Sudan is gone with no one picking up production, and
Checkmate, publishers of that great term program ProTerm, is dead. There are of
course small oasises of Apple II believers such as the good folks at A2-Central
and the amazing FTA production team, but they are far and few between. Welcome
to the new Apple II world, it will never be the same.