Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!art100
From: ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Look what we're doing ... (i'm not bashing apple)
Message-ID: <90278.003705ART100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 5 Oct 90 04:37:05 GMT
References: <20756@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <2078@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 57

Just imagine if all the effort spent on bitching recently was
instead put toward stuff like putting out new software, finding out
neat things to do with the //, etc...  Well I'm going to put in my
effort, but not in Apple bashing.

You'll get out of your // just what you put into it, no matter what
Apple does.  The ][+ is not dead, even though it's not supported by
Apple, because people hacked at it enough to keep it alive.  It's
the users who decide whether a product lives or dies.  I will keep
my //c until it physically dies, even though I'd like to get a
workstation eventually.  I probably won't buy another Apple because
I don't need another // and I don't like anything about the Mac
except for the pretty pictures.  If you won't want to own an Apple
after it's supported, go ahead and leave the Apple // community, and
good riddance!  Something tells me that the original amount of
hackerness of // owners, indeed all computer owners, is WAY down.
Whether or not this is a good thing I can't say.  But I don't think
that if Apple dropped the // instead of putting out the ][+ that
there would be anywhere near the outcry (in percentage of owners)
that there is now when Apple has not even announced they're dropping
the // at all; it's just a bunch of paranoid people who will hear
whatever they want to hear.

(skip to the next to last paragraph to avoid ranting and raving)
Everyone who's bitching seems to have the same basic complaint,
which is there isn't anything left for them to spend tons of money
on for their computers, in new software, hardware, whatever.  I've
owned a //e since September of 1983 (marked by my first issue of
Softalk) and a //c since June of '86.  I have spent VERY LITTLE
money on these computers.  We bought Word Juggler with the //e and
that has sufficed very well as my only word processor.  I wrote my
own software to do just about everything I wanted my apple to do,
except for games (of which I have seen many but own few), and I even
wrote a few games.  Sure, this wasn't elegant or fast software, but
it did the job and I learned a bit while I was doing it.  My uncle
gave me my first modem and a second disk drive, plus a
serial/parallel interface.  I got a mouse for Christmas.  I buy
blank disks in bulk.  My joystick was another Christmas present.
When I got the //c and Imagewriter II I wrote my own printer driver
for WJ so I could continue to use it without upgrading.  I
eventually bought a Unidisk 3.5 used for cheap, and with it came
some more software.  I got subscriptions to magazines rather than
buying software.  I've repaired disk drives myself rather than
taking them to a dealer.  I borrowed a terminal program so I could
download kermit.  When my serial ports on my //c died, rather than
getting it fixed (I will eventually), I wrote a kermit driver for my
//e's serial card.  I use freeware whenever I can, and I rely on the
work of other Apple enthusiasts for tips, etc.

In short, my computing would hardly be affected at all if Apple and
every company producing products and software for the Apple // WERE
to abandon the Apple // line.  And I think there are enough people
out there who feel the same way that the apple // WILL NOT DIE
until these hackers die.

I bet hacking on the GS is more difficult than any other //, but
it sure must be more interesting!