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From: abc@BRL.ARPA (Brint Cooper)
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: to Upgrade, or not to Upgrade, that is the question!
Message-ID: <8610102141.AA08083@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Fri, 10-Oct-86 14:19:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8610102141.AA08083
Posted: Fri Oct 10 14:19:46 1986
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Tamir Weiner asks whether to update or keep is Apple II+ and 'live in
1979.'

What about us?  My wife has an Apple IIe, 2 drives, RS-232 board and
printer interface, also a printer.  She owns this machine for
compatibility with her professional environment.

She is a public school teacher of children in Grade 4.  Her school is
about to get a 'computer laboratory' consisting ultimately of 12 Apple
IIe machines connected via a 'network.'  The master machine will have
mass storage from which programs will be downloaded to the other 11.
Five of these already have their own floppy drives and can, thus, stand
alone.

Are 8-bit machines obsolete?  Should our schools throw out their Apple
IIe investment for "larger" machines.

Public school systems are never at the cutting edge in anything.
Educators are generally conservative, and local government is least
likely of any level to put new and expensive items in its budgets.

Perhaps our existing machines are not  as "obsolete" as the industry
would have us believe.  If they still do useful work for us, are
they obsolete?

In my work, I have access to Goulds and Vaxen of every description.
Soon, that will include a Cray XMP-48 and, next year, a "Cray 2 class"
machine.  We have a second telephone line at home so that I have
unlimited access to this 'stable.'  A SUN workstation at home would be
wonderful!  But we have a IIe and a couple of CP/M machines.  They do
what we need.

Tamir, if one were purchasing his/her first computer, I'd not recommend
a IIGS or anything less than a Mac/Amiga/PC-AT level machine.  But you
have a computer; so do I.  The question for both of us is:   What do we
want to do at home that our present hardware won't do?  What's the
cheapest/easiest/quickest way to get that capability?

If your II+ connects you to a state-of-the-art machine somewhere
else, you're hardly living in 1979!

Brint