evett@drinkme.umd.edu (Matt Evett) (10/21/89)
Yes, they DO still exist! My father owns a 128K Mac that was upgraded to 512K a few years back. Lately, he's been having trouble running "new" Mac software. Either the software comes on double-sided discs and so isn't loadable with his ANCIENT disc drives, OR there's something in the Mac's hardware that makes it incompatible with newer software. (Didn't Apple upgrade the ROM chips at some point?) Questions: 1) The easiest upgrade path would be to just buy a new machine. The Plus is affordable, but I am feeling a tad snake-bit with Apple's anti-customer support history; the 128K machine was virtually a dinosaur only a year after my father bought his. How long do you think Apple will continue to support the Plus? How long do you think interesting software will continue to be written for the Plus? 2) Is it reasonable to consider gutting the old 128K machine, saving the power source, monitor, rack, and frame and inserting Plus guts? 3) If you think the Plus is fey, should my father consider going for an SE instead? Do you think that will have a longer life expectancy (i.e., Time Till Obselesence)? One last point: Yes, it is true that not everyone can afford the 4 or 5 grand to plop down for a nifty color Mac II (cx, ci, etc....) Thanks for any advice you can give me. Feel free to reply by e-mail if you'd rather. Thanks, Matt Evett -- Matt Evett Dept.Comp.Sci., University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. evett@brillig.umd.edu