The Apple II At 30

turnitover sends us to eWEEK for an appreciation of the Apple II on the 30th anniversary of its shipping. An overview of the history of the Apple II puts it in context. A nice tidbit: how important the floppy drive was to sales. The article quotes Sellam Ismail, the proprietor of VintageTech, which maintains archives of computers, documents, and software: "You could think of the Apple II's importance on two levels — the Woz level and the Steve Jobs level." The former refers to its allure to hackers, and the latter to its appliance-like polish, a first for its time, There is also an interview with Woz, who says, "[A]t the start there were no computers in the home — we had to make the word computer compatible with homes."

Comments

Slots

[TrashGod]

From TFA: "[Jobs] opposed the inclusion of expansion slots... Woz himself had to demand their inclusion, and the two compromised on having four."

Of course, the Apple ][ had seven (7) slots.

uh huh

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it run Vista?

*duck*

Re:What's changed in 30 years?

[Purity Of Essence]

There can't have been many even among those who had the skills who would have willingly attempted do-it-yourself surgery on so expensive of piece of unfamiliar hardware.

I have. And I don't even have skills. But what I lack in skills I make up for in lack of money.