Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!shelby!agate!linus!alliant!cantrell
From: cantrell@Alliant.COM (Paul Cantrell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Will Mac's go the way of Apple II's
Message-ID: <4261@alliant.Alliant.COM>
Date: 9 Oct 90 15:34:04 GMT
References: <143400015@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <2869@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM>
Reply-To: cantrell@alliant.Alliant.COM (Paul Cantrell)
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA
Lines: 49

Lots of people talking about how long Apple must support the current 68K
Macs.

In article <2869@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM> ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) writes:
>	This is a rather pointless flame, how long can you seriously expect
>	a company to support aging technology? There comes a time when you
>	need to wake up and smell the coffee that 6502's don't cut it
>	anymore. Same thing with the Mac's. Despite the comments about
>	upgrade policies, that is something where I think Apple has
>	excelled, no other company has provided upgrade paths for its
>	machines as Apple has.

I've gotta agree with Norm here. Since I bought my Mac+, the various
computer companies I've worked for have shipped about 4 generations of
largly incompatible hardware and software. Upgrade policies have existed,
but nothing like what Apple has offered on the Macs. In general each
generation is a totally different architecture which requires substantial
work to port software and hardware to. This is often necessary to be able
to release revolutionary products. Apple has done a tremendous job
making sure new versions of the software largely continue to work on the
old hardware.

During the same time period, I've seen my Betamax VCR become totally
obsolete, and I can't get leaded gasoline for my pickup truck anymore. :-)
So Apple is doing significantly better than Sony and GMC as far as that
stuff goes...

On the other hand, staying too long with a standard isn't always great.
It's wonderful that all the NTSC televisions can all receive the same
signal even though the standard has been enhanced over time to include
things like color and stereo. However, at some point in the near future I
hope they scrap it and go with a very high resolution version of HDTV,
rather than water down the new standard to try to make it compatible with
existing sets and broadcast equipment. If they do that, I won't be able to
get an HDTV set with nearly as nice a picture. Similarly, if Apple is forced
to stay with 68000 longer than it makes sense to, we may get computers which
aren't nearly as capable as they might be.

It's nice to have things last more than one year, but making it last too
long can stifle progress and restrict the kind of products available to
the consumer. I think Apple has struct a good comprimise, and if they
announce an 88K version of the Mac that's incompatible with my Mac+, I
won't feel as if I was cheated.

					PC

HDTV = High Definition Tele Vision
GMC = General Motors Corporation
NTSC = Current USA television broadcast standard