Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!hybrid!torag!utdoe!generic!pnet91!mhill
From: mhill@pnet91.cts.com (Martin Hill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Egghead Drops Apple II
Message-ID: <733@generic.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 91 10:30:03 GMT
Sender: root@generic.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet91], Etobicoke, ON
Lines: 34

> 3) Even though Apple Continues to manufacture, sell, develop system
> software for and provide minimal marketing lip service to the Apple
> II, we are all but orphans already.  The "dry" years that began two or
> three years ago, with little support, no advertising and no
> significant CPU upgrades have killed off the Apple II in the hearts
> and minds of most of the computer world.  It makes little difference
> that there are people at Apple hard at work on Apple IIGS System 6.0,
> or that the machines are still being manufactured and sold.  In the
> minds of the vast majority of people who build and sell hardware, or
> write and distribute software, the machine is already dead.

I've given up looking for new IIgs software, because I know that there simply
will not be any more (commercial, that is). Nobody wants to support the GS
because of Apple's (management, not DTS) attitude. There's just very little
money to gain compared with PC clones and Macs and it's always tricky to port
software over. A couple of years ago I could always hope that something new
was jusr around the corner, and occasionally something good would come out,
about once in 3 months. Now I've completely lost hope that software will be
developed for the IIgs.

The way I see it, the Apple II's is entirely in the hands of the owners and
the dedicated people at Apple II DTS. Any future software will have to be
written by users and distributed as freeware or shareware. What the GS needs
most right now is development software, and it seems we've been getting just
that in the last year or two. The Apple II community will probably continue to
shrink until the only ones left are the hackers. It's not that the machine is
dead, just moving towards a different purpose.

I'll continue to use and program my GS until I can afford to upgrade to a
higher platform - like a NeXT - but that's probably 2 years down the road at
least. Whatever I do, my GS will be the last Apple product I ever own.

UUCP: bkj386!pnet91!mhill
INET: mhill@pnet91.cts.com