User`s guide

resources currently devoted to II series development, production, and marketing.
Finally, speculation aside, one has only
to look at what the company has done--- or, more precisely, NOT done--- to
support its IIgs...
NEED: Traditionally, upgrades are forced by the competition. By fall of last
year, it was clear that lower prices for VGA resolution IBM clones posed a
serious threat. The II series would be in serious trouble, I reasoned, if Big
Green did not soon introduce a MAJOR IIgs upgrade. The bare bones requirement
has to be something around 8 MHz speed, with a mod to access display memory at
current "fast" speed, AND access to 640 x 480 16-color graphics. More sound
RAM, a second display block, better disk I/O, a
nd a multi-color TEXT mode would be nice; but, obviously, without speed and
graphics parity, the IIgs isn't even in the ball game.
Such demands are not, as some like to claim, merely a product of users
losing out in 'my computer is better than yours' contests. For many
applications, it is now possible to define something like speed and resolution
'absolutes': there is such a thing as "not fast enough" or "not enough detail",
whatever the competition is doing. Today, no super-res word processor or desktop
publisher runs "fast enough" on the IIgs-- the user is always conscious of
trading away speed for "power"--; nor can the user o
btain anything like an accurate on-screen view of many fonts. "WYSIWYG" just
isn't possible with only 200 lines of vertical resolution.
Similar considerations apply with respect to many utility, scientific, and
entertainment applications. The worry is that continued incompatibility with
VGA-developed 'control panels', windowing setups, and artwork will slow the
release of IIgs versions; and that, increasingly, speed may become a
disqualifier. No one, in short, is talking about 'gilding the lily'; the focus
is upon such mundane concerns as decent 'productivity applications' comfort
levels and continued access to new products.
Now, as you read this, it is summer; IIgs sales are on a double-digit
slide, and, assuming there is no last minute upgrade announcement, the II line
IS in serious trouble. Just how serious became obvious to me when a fellow IIgs
devotee, Baywoof (a.k.a. "the Boardbasher"), confessed that he was dumping his
Apple and moving to an IBM. He figures that, for the price he can still get for
his IIgs stuff, he can buy a complete VGA color '386 clone system.
I've seen his numbers; and, at worst, the difference is probably less than
three or four hundred dollars!-- this for a three or four times speed increase,
twice the hard disk storage, faster floppy access, lower peripherals prices,
easier upgrades, larger software base, and much better graphics. (BUT, he will,
for now, have to give up IIgs-quality sound. Ha!)
Anyone still inclined to accept the pomp and glitz of Apple group festivals
at face value need only peruse a recent "Computer Shopper". With luck, somewhere
in a few hundred pages of IBM clone ads and product reviews, you will find Don
Lancaster holding forth in the the three or four pages of what qualifies as the
"Apple" section.
"Wait!", you cry, "what about the 'New II in '89' promised at last winter's
'Fest? or reports of a plug-in upgrade?" So far, the only evidence of a "New II"
is yet another addition to the malingering IIc series and some talk of a "New
IIgs" with in-ROM operating system smarts and on-board MIDI. As for Apple's