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From: tsouth@techbook.com (Todd South)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Sculley on Compu$erve
Summary: What is the truth?!?
Keywords: Sculley, "truth in marketting"
Message-ID: <1990Dec6.062544.22949@techbook.com>
Date: 6 Dec 90 06:25:44 GMT
References: <9012010506.AA06783@apple.com>
Organization: TECHbooks of Beaverton Oregon - Public Access Unix
Lines: 93

In article <9012010506.AA06783@apple.com> STEIN@UCONNVM.BITNET (Alan Stein)
writes:
>
>I spent nearly an hour looking through messages to and from John Sculley
>on Compu$erve.  Most of the messages to John could have been written by
>members of our list.  Almost all went unanswered;  the few answers from
>Sculley (or his ghostwriter) were standard pablum which, between the
>lines, seemed to indicate that is no hope that Apple will ever give any
>decent amount of support to the Apple II line.
>
>Sculley made it quite clear that Apple will never again sell a
>stand alone Apple II.  And we all know that, if no new models are ever
>introduced, it's just a matter of time before the promised support and
>enhancements vanish, as well as any hope of new software.

Alan!  You are amazed by this?  You, who have been on this list for some
time?  I'M SHOCKED!  This whole idea that Apple would actually (for frickin'
once in their history) tell us the truth about ANYTHING to do with the
Apple II is ludacris to say the least.  For some reason, Apple Inc. has
always has this mystical idea that the second they tell us anything about
what is actually going to happen to the Apple II their entire company
will fold, though, they may not be far from the truth.

For now, they are satisfied to put out a number of old technology Macs,
IMHO, and keep the profit margins up where they `should be'.  When any
3rd party comes out with real cutting edge technology today they sure as
hell will not put it towards a computer system that has its own company
refusing to keep it up with the times.  What's really funny (at least to
me and those who know what I do) is the fact that even my company has a
better upgrade ratio than the Apple II!

Well, at least I have finally reached the financial position where I can
truthfully say that come tax time I will either be buying the newest //gs
on the market which Apple has finally released or getting (what I consider)
a good computer system that will grow and doesn't have the problems in
political corners which have plagued the Apple II since the creation of
Jobs Inc. inside of Apple.  Considering that I grew up on Apple II's and
have stayed loyal to them for the most part on my hobbyist ventures (except
for a few good deals I couldn't pass up) I really find this sad that I will
not be spending my next major computer fund on an Apple computer.  Quite
frankly, the only reason that I would ever consider buying a Mac anything
would be for product development with friends like Russ Gibson, who have
showed me time and time again that most folks buy Macs never get much
past the stage of desktopping and MacWrite.

My next computer purchase (if a new //gs doesn't show up by the end of
January 1991) will definitely be an Amiga 3000 running the latest release
of Unix.  But, supposedly the 3500 will be hitting the market at that
time and I may have to see it tested a bit so the purchase may wait till
a month from that release.

Truthfully, if I was not a member of the Apple II community who has been
subjected to all the politically biased marketting (not subjective market
mind you, but pure politics) which I have seen time and time again from
Apple Inc. I would probably be purchasing a Mac II something.  But, when
I look at the company's past history towards an installed computer user
base that has been more loyal to them than a lot of religions in the
world I just do not want to take the chance with an outlay of money that
for me is equivalent to what I have paid for most cars ($6K to $9K).

>In two and a half years, my daughter will be going off to college and my
>family will need at least one new computer.  I hope there's some
>company, somewhere, producing an exciting, affordable, useful computer
>at that time.
>
> __________________________________________________________
>|                                                          |
>| Alan H. Stein              | stein@uconnvm.bitnet        |

There is!  I truly feel that the Amiga, and the user base of installed
hackers on that system encompass what I am looking for in a computer and
the support for said computer.  I went to a local Portland Apple Users
meeting last week to demo Proline and most of the people there did not
even know how to boot up GS/OS on a new disk/hard drive!  Gone are the
days of 60 people sitting around playing the latest Apple II game, gone
are the days of picking apart someone's code, gone are the days of simple
fun that I had with other Apple II hackers.  Today they are into Amiga's,
Next's and Unix.  This says something about the computer, I believe, and
the company's support (at least as perceived by the users, software
developers and hardware developers).  Well, at least if I do go Amiga I'll
have a good reason to finally get a decent terminal program for that
machine.

Todd South

(wondering if Andy will talk to me again :)


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