Most of the
time, but not always, Apple's deviation from
standards was done in the attempt to build a better mouse trap, not
just to ignore standards. Sometimes they were right, sometimes
In some cases, yes, but often it appears they did it for 'production
reasons' rather than technical superiority. Or maybe just to force you to
buy Apple peripherals.
That DB25 SCSI port, for example (which IMHO doesn't have enough ground
pins) rather than a 50 pin connector. Or those infernal Mac serial ports
(I am not sure what they really are, they're not RS232, RS422 or RS423).
I think in general Apple was just playing the good fisherman, setting the
hook as deeply and firmly as possible. That sometimes the proprietary
design offered some benefits was not the main focus, locking in the
customer was always Jobs basic plan.
The Apple II floppy was incredibly ingenious, and a great value, the Mac
floppy the biggest ripoff this side of mil/nasa. That stinking floppy drive
was $170 from Apple until it was discontinued, and nothing but the Apple
unit will work in a mac.
PCI slots were the straw that annoyed this camel beyond anything else. A
huge portion of the reason I bought a PCI mac was compatibility with a
standard after many years of suffering nubus price gouging and neglect. But
NO, it isn't freaking compatible with anything PC PCI, and over the
stinking last decade I doubt if more than a TINY percentage of PCI cards
ever got mac drivers (mostly in ethernet, still less than 25% even in that
sector). No I did not enjoy paying more for a rebadged Voodoo2 card than
the Voodoo3 cost either just for the Mac driver. (yes I know unsupported
Voodoo3 drivers for the mac were pretty good).
Phoo, never start typing with a sore back.
