blackcrayon

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blackcrayon
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  • How Apple owes everything to its 1977 Apple II computer

    blackcrayonblackcrayon
    crowley said:
    AppleInsider said:
    It's the Apple II that made the company, kept it afloat, and even made it a cult success -- but it was also the Apple II that Steve Jobs tried so hard to kill off with the Mac. It's the little machine that could, did, and for its fans, still does.
    Still does?  Not seeing much evidence of that in the article.  Is anyone still using an Apple II for anything other than nostalgia?
    I guess "nostalgia" can be defined a bit, but plenty of us use Apple II's (albeit later models than the absolute *original* Apple II) for fun. There are even new peripherals that get developed for them - video cards, storage devices, and it's still a fun challenge making a 35-40 year old computer do things it was never intended to.
    lolliverwatto_cobra

  • How Apple owes everything to its 1977 Apple II computer

    blackcrayonblackcrayon
    mainyehc said:
    Wait, maybe I’m missing something here, so please bear with me:

    […]
    Before we make the Apple II sound like a machine you would want to buy today, you wouldn't. For all its firsts, it had a major deficiency in that only supported uppercase letters. If you bought an Apple II in 1977, you could only type on it in capitals. It wasn't until 1983 and the Apple IIe that it shipped with the ability to show lowercase too.
    […]
    But then suddenly it was the 1990s, and still the Apple II was selling. By this point, it had gone through very many variations, but the final one was the Apple IIe. It ceased production in November 1993.
    How could the Apple IIe have been simultaneously launched in 1983 *and* the “final” model? The final one to be actually in production, standing alone, after a 10-year-long run? You’re meaning to tell me Apple discontinued the more capable Apple IIGS even before the IIe, and not the entire remaining lineup at the same time? I mean, I know Apple is no stranger to selling really old hardware for years without updating it – the Macintosh Plus, the iPod Classic, the iPod Touch, the Mac Mini and the infamous 2013 Mac Pro come to mind –, but jeez, ten years?

    Edit: ooooh, I see. That would’ve been indeed the Apple IIe Platinum. And judging from its specs, it wasn’t that different from the other IIe models. Still extremely weird, IMHO.
    Yep, I often wonder what it would've been like if Apple simply discontinued the IIe in 1987 or so, and all current and future orders for IIe's were simply filled by IIgs machines.  Since the GS is highly compatible with the IIe, almost all software and hardware works.  I guess the obvious answer is cost- Making a IIe in 1989, which wasn't much different than it was in 1983, must've only cost Apple "pennies" compared to making the relatively complex IIgs.
    watto_cobra