Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!vtserf!cohill
From: cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Clarification
Message-ID: <345@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 14:16:45 GMT
References: <45267@apple.Apple.COM> <103@aloe.cs.arizona.edu> <2864@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM>
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Lines: 31

I've tried to restrain myself from all the silliness in this newgroup
recently, but someone finally said something sensible.  The point was
made that many copies of Hypercard never make it out of the shrink wrap,
and I believe that to be true.  In fact, Hypercard has never lived up
the original hype.  I run into people all the time that ask what it is
supposed to be used for;  typically these are people who buy the Mac for
specific purposes but have no need to "invent" new things.  As an
example, the College of Architecture here pretty much requires students
to buy Macs, and they have one of the largest single curriculum
installed bases of Macs in the country (600 +).  I can tell you, as a member
of the College, that these people push their Macs hard graphically, but
most of them have not even installed Hypercard, much less use it for
anything.

Giving away Hypercard with every machine costs big bucks when you are
selling hundreds of thousands of machines.  It makes perfect sense to me
quit giving away stuff that ends up in most peoples' closet, and start
trying to create a revenue stream so that you can, in the end, spend
more on enhancing the product in a meaningful way for the people that do
use it.

For reasons I have never understood, Macs attract lots of users who have
this wierd notion that Apple should give everything away, and that it is
somehow a violation of First Amendment rights (or something) if they
don't.  You don't see pc users whining like this.  Would make an
interesting psychological profile study: Why whiny Mac users.....
-- 
|          ...we have to look for routes of power our teachers never       
|              imagined, or were encouraged to avoid.   T. Pynchon          
|Andy Cohill                    
|703/231-7855        cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu            VPI&SU