hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

see below, plz. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Ford" <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 5:09 PM Subject: Re: hard-sector 5 1/4 disk paid It's only the Apple][ 5-1/4" disk subsystem that causes the problems. The software abuses them considerably and the approach to error handling is so primitive that one who goes strictly by the manuals has no chance of recovering have been there because of failed FD systems. As I said before, once they were equipped with an 8" controller, not that the media size had much to do with it, but with a standard controller, capable of employing standard time-worn methodology to the problems of providing disk storage for a small computer, they seemed to be quite solid. It's just that Apple][ disk subsystem that causes the heartburn. PC Clones last just as long in the schools as anywhere else where there are people smart enough to use them. Kids can't be expected to learn how to use computers when teachers can't. You can't force the teachers to be smart enough when they have no time to get smart. Even if it's not the "real" case, thats how many of them preceive it, and that, combined with the vast number of donations to the schools that Apple made in order to chum the market, easily explains why teachers gravitate toward the Apple product. Once they have to buy and maintain their own hardware, they quickly switch to PC's. Schools seem to have a much easier time using clearly obsolete MAC's than equally obsolescent PC's, but that's because they have to BUY the PC's, while they can get large discounts on the PC's, with their suppliers relying on high volume in heavily discounted sales of last year's MAC model to the teachers. It's possible they've outgrown that, but buyers are still quite vulnerable to the appeal of low price, even if what they end up with isn't as useful as something a little more costly. That goes both ways, by the way. What's a Performa? Actually, both Apple and M$ have copied the same model, hence the similarity. If Apple had any claim at all to the GUI, they'd not have lost in court. No. Only the dumb ones pay that. The rest of the PC users simply use the old version that still works fine. The rate at which new OS versions are promoted will slow, now that the market has reached saturation, and it won't be so easy for M$ to motivate people to buy new versions of the software that doesn't work any better than the previous version.