🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <127995@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) writes:
>In article <254@spt.entity.com>, mdc@spt.entity.com (Marty Connor) writes:
>> Marty:
>> The more I think about it the better I like the idea of having machine
>> in this class.  In some ways it would be nice if it used 128k ROMS, to
>> keep software houses from jumping ship on the Plus, though I imagine
>> someone at Apple just screamed when I said that.  Alright, I know my
>> plus has to die someday; I could live with 256k ROMS, but of course
>> should use a 68000.  
> Steve:
>Why? (Other than the obvious issue of cost, a 68020 or, better, an '030
>would give the headless Mac owners(oops...that should be HeadlessMac) 
>more confidence in having their machine be useful for a longer time.

>This particularly in light of the announced direction that the System/Finder
>is going.  Why make a machine *now* that won't be able to use some of 
>the more desirable features of 7.0, which is already (pre-)announced.

Compatibility with 7.0:

Desirable to who?  At what price?
Apple has already admitted by creating the SE that not everyone needs
virtual memory if it is going to cost over 1K to produce.  So other
than virtual memory and a few other unix-like features, the SE will
support the weight of 7.0 fairly respectably.  

And people like Ashton-Tate who come out with disgusting ad campaigns
that say "finally a machine that can run our pig word processor"
notwithstanding, 7.0 *will work* on an SE and the machine we're
blackboard-designing would (so far...) have an SE engine.

And let's not forget the Portable...  No PMMU there; Will run 7.0 with
2 megs... I must just assume 4 meg SIMMS will work with it...

Price/Performance:

Price is very much an issue for many people.  You would seem to to
shrug off the fact that not everyone can at the drop of a hat waltz
down to their Apple dealer and say:
  "Money is no object.  Make me a Mac system, and deliver it to my
    office/home,  You take Platinum Amex for double warranty, of course."
 And their dealer says:
  "Sure.  How about a IIcx with 8 meg, and a RasterOps 19" monitor,
   and a LaserWriter II NTX, and of course all this MicroSoft Office 
   software.  All for just $17K.  Amex, of course!"

(Don't laugh, I have clients who did this just to "check out the
technology".

>> no ADB so as not to compete with the SE20?
>Unlikely, since Apple committed to the ADB notion a *long* time ago.
>(Does use of ADB make the //gs compete with the SE more than the Plus?)

ADB and other Features:

Your point here is will taken.  I was attempting to say that this
hypothetical machine should not compete with the SE too strongly or
the Apple Marketing people will get scared off.

Maybe not as Sexy, but fun to be with:

Perhaps just having it in parts so it is not even as portable as the
SE would be enough.  Maybe someone can think of some more ideas to
make it attractive to low-end business users and educational users and
still keep the managers buying the high margin stuff to keep apple
accountants and greedy board members happy.  Maybe 800K floppies would
do it.  Ideas anyone?

Middle-Managerial CPU Envy will Prevail:

I notice that in the IBM World managers still buy the Compaq '386s
with big color screens to run tiny spreadsheets because they can play
Leisure Suit Larry games on them behind closed doors.  While
secretaries and admin assistants just down the hall write 90 page
proposals on XT Klones in WordStar [tm].

So maybe Apple shouldn't worry so much about coming out with a low-end
"Apple Civic" (sorta like) a Honda Civic or whatever the low-end thing
is) kind of machine.  People still buy Preludes and the Acuras.  But
for the low-end there is still something of quality and compatability.

Pass it on:

Now I hope some of you good Apple folks will slide all these messages
under Gassee's door or something (along with a Ramsey Memorial crying
towel or something).  I mean I hear tell at Apple that even the
secretaries have IIs, and almost *nobody* has a plus, and 128s are not
spoken of...  Just want to make sure y'all remember the millions of
plusses that made the R&D money for the IIs and IIcx possible.  I
write this on a 4meg Mac Plus with 6.0.3.

Won't it be nice to say:

"Macintosh, the power to be your best.  Offerring systems from highly
 affordable Entry-Level systems to Powerful High-End WorkStations all
 with an intuitive, consistent user-interface and with Apple Quality
 backed by a One-Year Warranty."

And so it goes...

-- 
Marty Connor, Marty's Computer Workshop,  "Specializing in Macintosh Training"
126 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139; (617) 491-6935
mdc@entity.com, or ...{harvard|uunet}!mit-eddie!spt!mdc