Grygus on Apple
While I disagree with much of his indictment, I can't pass up an opportunity to pile on disparagement of of the late, unlamented Apple ][ (as it used to be styled). This was my first computer, sold to me in October 1982 for a sum slightly north of a quarter of my then-annual income. It came with a whopping 48K of RAM (later upgraded to 64K) and, as AG mentions, the inability to display lowercase characters onscreen, a feature I later added for about $200 by means of a so-called "80-column card"—which could not, alas, keep up with my two-fingered typing.
Before a year had passed I had ceased to use the beast, although my then-spouse did not. I could scarcely bear to look at it, and resented the check I wrote each month to the credit union that had financed the folly.
About two years after the initial purchase the spouse, at that time working for a Berkeley-based software house (subsequently sued out of business for ripping off Broderbund), started talking up the Macintosh. My response was: "I will never permit a machine from that loathsome company to cross my threshold." One evening she lured me onto the premises and then, pleading a meeting, left me in a room with a single table and an original 128K Mac with MacPaint already launched. When she came back I sighed heavily and said "You win. Where do I sign?"
The spouse left, all passion spent. The attachment to the Mac has endured, and a decade's exposure to Microsoft's competing technologies has never come close to denting this. I still do not adore the company, but the elegance of their OS has kept my heart. It astounds me that Microsoft with all its gazillions has suffered itself to remain lashed to such an ugly UI/OS.
cordially,
