Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!ALBION.BITNET!CHEESEBALL
From: CHEESEBALL@ALBION.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Fool In the Rain
Message-ID: <8902230056.aa29433@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 22 Feb 89 21:22:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 61


        Lord knows that fools come in many shapes and forms, and that
there are many around this land of ours, but I never thought I'd see the
day where I WOULD SAY THIS:  Apple made a sucker out of me!  I've had my
GS for 2 years and 2 months and I've yet to get much out of it!  As a business
machine, basically the best you can do is AppleWorks 2.0 (unless you have
the patience of 10 dead men) and as a game machine, the thing is a poor
man's Amiga.  All I use my machine for is word-processing, game playingm
and a little bit of play on a spread sheet.  I know everyone and their
grandmother has moaned about how slow this thing is, but let's get real!
The reason they say it is because it is!  GOD IS THIS THING SLOW!  I've
never seen a machine as slow in performing the things IT IS DESIGNED TO DO!
I can't believe that WE, the Apple II pioneers (I got one in 1979) get
the shaft for the MAC elite.  My dad owns a MAC, and he doesn't know squat.
Obviously I know less.  I trusted Apple to deliver me a machine that could
compete with the ST and the AMIGA and I figured that I was paying the $2000
smackers for a machine with power.  My dad is in a golden situation.  He
gets all the attention of apple.  We have to wait about six eons just for
an operating system that is still too slow and quite confusing to learn.
When I first got the machine, I read Trip Hawkins' summary of the GS' abilities:
   "GS stands for 'graphics that are static'."  Well, he was right.  I don't thi
   nk
I would have written this letter though if it wasn't for one little thing
that happened over Christmas.  I came back from my vacation to discover that
my battery had died.  My "10-YEAR" battery was dead at the ripe old age
of slightly over two years.  Now my machine has an old disk II with a
controller card in slot six, my machine also has a modem in slot two.  Everytime
I power up, I have to set these two things right, and then hot boot.  When
I run AppleWorks, I have to manually set the date.  I can't just hit return
because according to my "Woz" the date is 1/22/13 and the date must be
after 1984.  I have little software after two years, and Trip Hawkins' lovely
company (Electronic Arts) has been saying for these last two years that they
will release a program called EARL WEAVER BASEBALL and then denying that they
will release it.  C'mon people stop with the lies.  Last year at this time,
I got a call from their head of Customer Service swearing that it would be
out in the spring of '88 for the GS.  Well it isn't.  I'm guessing that
there's two reasons for it.  1) the program was slower than a dead
turtle in molasses during a Nebraskan december because of the 2.8MhZ
clockspeed of a certain overpriced, platinum-colored dinosaur that shall
remain nameless to protect those who are guilty (of charging too much
for aforementioned dinosaur).  2) No one buys GS software.  Is that a pair
of good enough reasons?  Well, I'm NOT GOING TO suggest how to improve
the GS.  It's bloody simple: add a coupla graphics modes, and beef
up the speed tremendously (basically treble the clock speed).  Whoops,
I guess I'm a liar and a hypocrite.  Well, I've been silent for too long
and I'm getting madder as time passes.  If nothing happens by the end
of the summer, you're going to see one GS owner and a once-loyal Appler
(who dare I say it: single-handedly sold about 7 GSes) convert to
the AMIGA.  I'm sick of hearing the Apple employees say, "We hear you."
How long do we have to hold our collective breath before you DO SOMETHING.
This is not a flame on you guys, but on your bosses who think the MAC
is the almighty or something.  Well, I've said enough and it probably
won't make a tinker's cuss of a difference.  I guess you could say
that I'm "sick and tired of being sick and tired."  Well, I think I'll
go home and cry on my KEYBOARD...


                                                Dave Srinivasan


                                                CHEESEBALL@ALBION