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The Apple II At 30

Posted by kdawson on from the hacker's-dream-and-appliance dept.

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."

4 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Updated version. by Cheezymadman · · Score: -1, Troll

    More like this: Windows = Christian (Large userbase, heirarchical) Linux = Buddhism (Smaller userbase, unwilling to fight others for share) Mac = Islam (Militant, unwilling to believe that others may be, in fact, correct)

    --
    We're all going to die. i intend to deserve it.
  2. Re:What's changed in 30 years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    If you wish Xcode would reformat your code for consistency, GTFO.
    If you're overwhelmed by IB's multi-paletted interface, GTFO.
    If you can't intuit your way from HyperTalk to AppleScript, GTFO.
    If the name "Clarus" means nothing to you, GTFO.

    Bandwagon jumpers are not welcome among real Mac geeks. Keep your filthy PC fingers to yourself.

  3. Re:What's changed in 30 years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "not providing a good product to the consumer."

    Hmmm...yeah...not a good consumer product...I guess that explains why Apple laptops, especially the low-end MacBook, are selling so damn fast these days...sheesh...

    (I've personally watched 3 or 4 friends buy a MacBook as their next laptop, whether they were using Macs before or not)

  4. Re:Jobs is a gaping quivering asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Intimately
    Why do think his asshole now gapes?