Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!uokmax!servalan!rmtodd From: rmtodd@servalan.uucp (Richard Todd) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: New Macintoshes and Apple's Satellite Announcment Message-ID: <1990Oct17.031607.6667@servalan.uucp> Date: 17 Oct 90 03:16:07 GMT References: <1990Oct16.063654.2744@isis.cs.du.edu> <5735@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Lines: 37 gaynor@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Jim Gaynor) writes: > Great, another "Apple II forever" fanatic. . Fred, do you >remember what the Apple II's contemporaries were? The Atari 400/800, >the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64, the Timex-Sinclair 1000, and the >Texas Instruments 99/4a. All these machines, with the exception of the >C-64, are found primarily at garage sales these days - and remember that the >Apple II line was already at the IIe when the C-64 was released. Heh. Evidently you're a latecomer to microcomputing, or you would have noted what the real contemporaries of the Apple II were when it was introduced in 1977. In low-end computers we had the TRS-80 Model I from Radio Shack and the Commodore PET. Those with somewhat larger budgets had S-100 based systems like IMSAI, et al. TI-99/4as, Sinclair ZX80s (let alone TS1000s) were still in the future; I don't think even the Atari was out then. So what happened to these contemporaries? The Model I bit the dust circa 1981 (when the FCC started to get persnickety about RF emitted by computers), and I don't think the PET lasted much beyond that, either. You can't even find them at garage sales these days. The Apple II line has been out there for *13 YEARS*, folks. It wasn't too bad a machine for 1977, but this is 1990, and it's high time to pull the plug on all the Apple II machines, except possibly the IIgs. It's a miracle they've lasted this long. As for the people whining about how Apple might not be supporting machine x in a couple of years, as Remo Williams says, "That's the biz, sweetheart." Technology is moving so fast that today's marvel is tomorrow's orphan. I've got a TRS-80 Model I and a PC/XT clone, and have seen them both slide into the realm of obsolescence and non-support. (Some might argue that the Shack never did *support* the Model I, but that's another matter :-). When I bought my Mac IIx, I had no illusions about its fate being in any way different. -- Richard Todd rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us rmtodd@servalan.uucp Motorola Skates On Intel's Head!