On Tuesday, January 29, 2002, at 07:15 PM, Tom Sheppard wrote:
>
> Not at all. Floppies are still used by PC folks and are a very quick and
> dirty way to exchange small files. I personally haven't used them at
> home
> for years, but they would have come in handy last summer.
>
> My Garmin GPS receiver I bought last summer only has a serial port. You
> have
> to use a USB to serial adapter with all the problems that go along with
> that. My X-10 computer is serial only. I loaned a serial 56 kpbs modem
> to a
> friend. Those are just the devices I use. Perhaps The Steve doesn't use
> devices.
>
> As for SCSI, my external HDs, DVD-RAM and scanner are all SCSI devices
> and
> are perfectly suited for the tasks they do. Why on earth would I want to
> replace them just because The Steve decides to remove support? If he's
> wondering what's slowing adoption of X, this is one of many things, the
> cost
> of replacing all those peripherals and the reluctance to do so when they
> work fine.
The devices all still work on PowerMac G4s... with additional hardware.
They are just no longer the "Standard" Mac port for this type of
connectivity. SCSI and serial have been replaced by FireWire and USB,
largely due to ease of use. But you can, through a SCSI card, use SCSI
devices. And there are both cards (for PowerMacs) and adapters (for ANY
new Mac) that allow serial connectivity. Now, as for OS X drivers, that
is not entirely Apple's fault. The perepherial manufacturers, who wrote
the drivers for "Classic" Mac OS, are also the ones who should write
drivers for OS X. Mac OS X does support SCSI.
> No problem there as long as the s/w continues to support old
> peripherals.
> Last I checked, Mac OS 9 on my 7100/66av doesn't support the built-in
> floppy, A/V features or energy saving modes. Why remove perfectly
> functional
> code when the installer can simply check the model and decide whether to
> install it or not? It won't hamper anyone on those fancy new iMacs.
I cannot speak to the other statements, but my PowerBook 5300 has no
problem using its internal floppy under OS 9.
> And will continue to work like this as long as we blindly accept it. I
> have
> an Epson 800N printer which is networked via Ethernet. Epson decides
> they
> won't support it in Mac OS X ...
This is not Apple's fault.
> I'm referring more to the peripherals than the CPU. Peripheral support
> could
> easily last 5-7 years.
>
> It is definitely more difficult to run the bloated OSes of today on
> older
> h/w. That says more about the crappy coding that's being done today
> than the
> deficiency of the h/w. I first used Unix on an HP-UX box which had a 40
> MHz
> 68020 w/64 MB of memory (I think) and it ran X-windows much faster than
> my
> 400 MHz G3 w/192 MB runs Aqua. You know, I really think I could do
> without
> all that silly transparency and anti-aliasing that The Steve demands I
> use
> just to get pre-emptive multi-tasking and memory protection.
The interface of OS X does require more processor power... but I
personally find it worth it. Aqua is beautiful, and easier to use. It is
a step forward. People said the same thing about the original
Macintosh... "We could do the same jobs on the same chip a lot faster
with a command line. The GUI uses too many system resources."
> I'm not sure if you're aware that Lucent developed WaveLAN/Orinoco for
> Apple. There was a big announcement by both Apple and Lucent when
> AirPort
> was released about this great partnership. AirPort cards _are_ WaveLAN
> cards. Mac OS 9's AirPort drivers support my WaveLAN card (because it's
> very
> darn close to Apple's) yet in OS X, they have deliberately chosen not to
> support it. Why?
I understand that the cards are very similar, but the principle remains.
Apple supports the hardware it made. It does not have a responsibility
to create drivers for third party hardware that they do not sell.
> Anyway, I'm sure Apple appreciates and supports your viewpoint on
> replacing
> old gear, but being and old gear (EE) myself, I can still see the value
> in
> perfectly functioning hardware.
I too see the value in older, but perfectly functional hardware. The key
is, not to expect old hardware to work with the latest new gizmo or
software. You bought the WaveLAN card, I imagine, for wireless
networking in OS 9. It still does that. It was never promised that it
would work in OS X without 3rd party drivers. You bought the SCSI
DVD-RAM drive, I would think, to burn DVDs on a SCSI Mac. They still
work, they just aren't yet supported by the latest OS.
sj
http://homepage.mac.com/stevehj
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