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From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: WHAT death of the Apple II?
Message-ID: <8902071644.aa27002@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 8 Feb 89 12:01:39 GMT
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X-Unparsable-Date: Tuesday 07 Feb 89 2:41 PM CT

>Date:         Tue, 24 Jan 89 05:33:06 EST
>From:         Ed Berlot <pnet01!pro-generic!edber@NOSC.MIL>
>Subject:      The death of the Apple //

>What seems to be the big fuss about the death of the Apple // line?

Have you stopped beating your spouse yet (yes or no)?

Same sort of question.  In other words, WHAT "death of the Apple II
line"?

>Consider the efforts that Apple has gone through to make the entire
>line of accessories identical to both the Apple // and the Mac line
>of computers.

Right, like the Apple 5.25 drives (can't be used with a Mac?), the
AppleColor RGB monitor (for the GS only), the Mac monitors (for
Macs only), the incompatible memory expansion kits, video cards,
network cards, Mac SE PC Drive card, Mac II PC Drive card, and the
Apple PC 5.25 Drive.

But there _are_ a lot of peripherals that work on both the Apple II
and Mac lines.  This seems to be an intelligent thing to do _whether
or not_ Apple intents to drop the Apple II line or the Mac line.  It
saves them money by reducing the number of products they need to
design, build, document, publicize, and educate people about.

>GSOS? OH you mean ProDOS 8 v1.7 and ProDOS 16 v2.0 don't  you? GS
>owners had to obtain GS OS through illict means since there was no
>Canadian release, until just before Christmas.

Well, System Disk 4.0 contains GS/OS 2.0 and ProDOS 8 v1.7, among
other things, yes.  It should have been available to you through
GEnie and by buying any commercial product that comes with GS/OS
(although I don't know whether commercial publishers typically
include the SYSTEM.TOOLS disk with their software, or whether they
just supply a minimally-configured startup disk).

>What does it boil down to? Apple US is seriously weighing te market,
>seeing what would happen if the Apple // was dropped? Notice that
>there has been little action on the // line since the GS was
>introduced? We've had a flurry of ProDOS releases, a new ROM, GS OS,
>a sped up //c (maybe a sped up //e?), but think that we've had 3 new
>Macs, a flurry of periphials, and promises of bigger and better
>Macs.

What is "little action"?  What do you _want_ them to do, release a
new GS every month?  "GS/OS" only takes 5 characters to write off as
something insignificant, but it's NIFTY, as will become more and
more apparent as more software is released that takes advantage of
GS/OS better.

I'm fairly _happy_ with the current GS hardware, and I'm looking
forward to more improvements in _software_:  especially improvements
that will let developers create GS software faster and easier.

>I say TOUGH. The market dictates what sells and what doesn't. A batch
>of die hards will not change corporate policy. If Apple means for the
>// line to die I can assure you, it will no matter what kind of
>howling, and protesting you can create.

That seems a bit contradictory to me.  The market dictates what
sells, except that corporate policy dictates what is for sale, and
nothing we can do will convince Apple to take our money?  The Apple
II _does_ sell, by the way.

> Edber@Pro-Generic             BIX: Edber      Genie :Edber

--David A. Lyons              bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs
  DAL Systems                 CompuServe:  72177,3233
  P.O. Box 287                GEnie mail:    D.LYONS2
  North Liberty, IA 52317     AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons