On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Richard Erlacher wrote:
  I don't know what you Apple-Computer-Co pimps have
been smoking ...
 I've never said ANYTHING about products manufactured and sold after
 1990 or so, and I certainly have limited my comments to the products
 using the Wozniak floppy disk interface, which is the basis of the
 complaints I've had to deal with since 1978.  That's not to say that 
That's the problem I have with your comments...the fact that they are so
very wrong and invalid.  Like I said, I wish you would explicitly limit
your comments to being your opinion and not insisting on stating them as
"facts".
<OPINION>
  I'll repeat, that I find the Apple disk interface
of the type
 associated with the Apple][ family to be ridiculously fragile,
 requiring extensive precautions in day-to-day use and extensive
 maintenance on a frequent (weekly) basis in order to make them at all
 useful.  That's a disappointment because technology available at the
 same time these devices became popular worked MUCH better, though
 people wanting to buy fully integrated systems which the Apple
 "computers" of the time were marketed to be, weren't willing to pay
 the price, hence, were stuck with the Apple product instead. 
</OPINION>
  Now, as for the post 1985 products, all of you
Microsoft-haters ought
 to remember how Apple dealt with its user base during the Lisa and
 early MAC years, whenever you disparage M$ (not to defend these
 practices ... ) for its distribution of different OS API's to
 different software vendors, depending on the "deal" that was made. 
Ok, they both have bad policies with regards to their API.  It's just that
MS is excessively more egregious about it.
<FACTUALLY INCORRECT OPINION>
  All this stems from the fact that back in the
'80's, if even the
 teensiest thing went wrong in the Apple]['s interaction with its own
 FD subsystem, the Apple][ went "TILT" and unless you knew things not
 yet published, you had no option but to restart and lose your current
 set of working data.  What's more, if you were foolish enough to power
 down the system with a diskette in the drive, or if you were foolish
 enough to set the Apple up as shown in numerous installations, with
 the monitor atop the 2 FDD's and that pair atop the Apple box, your
 disk subsystem gave you what they (Apple Computer Co) figured you
 deserved. 
</FACTUALLY INCORRECT OPINION>
Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger                
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