PV9Y@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (Adam C. Engst) (04/27/91)
Greetings,
Below is the final draft of the letter I will be sending to
Apple and many of the Macintosh publications. It will also
appear in this week's issue of TidBITS. If you support the
letter as it stands and desire to be included as a
signatory, please send me an email message stating that you
support the letter and wish to be included as a signatory.
Please include your full name and address - I want this to
be as official as possible.
To address concerns that I am not including the Mac II in
the letter, let me say that I wholeheartedly support a ROM
upgrade for the Mac II, but feel that it is best to keep the
focus of this particular letter narrow. Much of the letter
focuses on the fact that Apple advertised and documented the
ability of the IIx, IIcx, and SE/30 to address 128 MB. Apple
also touted the expandability of those machines, mentioning
the ROM SIMMs specifically. Those claims were not applied to
the Mac II, or if they were, they were not so vocally
expressed. I felt that adding the Mac II to the letter would
destroy much of the letter's concise power, saying at the
end of every paragraph, "Oh, and that applies to the Mac II
as well, kind of." I hope that once Apple produces a ROM
upgrade for the IIx, IIcx, and SE/30, the major barriers to
ROM upgrades in general will go down and a ROM upgrade for
the Mac II will follow shortly thereafter.
Many thanks to all of you who have already sent email
supporting the letter, and I wish to thank Jim Gaynor
especially for doing most of the work. I am merely picking
up where he was forced to leave off, and I hope I will be
able to produce as fine a finished product as he would have.
Sincerely,
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Editor and pseudo-chair of the
NewROMs group.
An Open Letter to Apple Computer, Inc.
With the advent of System 7.0, 32-bit Addressing, and the
new low-cost Macintoshes, Apple Computer has shown that it
remains committed to enhancing the capabilities of the
Macintosh line of computers without abandoning its users.
However, in that effort to advance technology, past
technologies ought not be abandoned haphazardly, nor should
unfulfilled potentials be left unrealized.
Apple advertised and documented the Macintosh IIx, IIcx, and
SE/30 as having the capability to address as much as 128 MB
of memory, an amount that should be sufficient for most
users years into the future. In addition, Apple had the
foresight to manufacture the Macintosh IIx, IIcx, and SE/30
with their System ROMs on SIMMs. This feature, touted by
Apple as a selling point, was to allow these machines to
easily upgrade their System ROMs at such time as that became
necessary. That time rapidly approaches.
Users discovered that the current System ROMs for these
Macintoshes are not "32-bit Clean." Thus, rather than
having 128 MB of memory space available as they believed,
users of these Macintoshes are limited to 16 MB - even less
after the addition of expansion cards. Businesses,
educational institutions, and individuals have invested in
these Macintoshes, and although 16 MB may be adequate for
many users, many others already find that limit restrictive.
As Apple continues to move towards full 32-bit Cleanliness
in its software and hardware, more users will encounter this
16 MB barrier, and find their otherwise capable Macintoshes
hamstrung by "dirty" ROMs.
Users and administrators have looked to Apple for an
initiative, for some plan of upgrading the ROMs of these
Macintoshes, but none has come forth. Apple designed the
Macintosh IIx, IIcx, and SE/30 to be easily upgraded but has
neither utilized the upgrade potential of these systems nor
announced an intent to do so.
We, the users, owners, and administrators of these Macintosh
computers, would like to see Apple make a public statement
regarding its plans to make a ROM upgrade available. We
would hope that this upgrade be made available within a
reasonable time frame, and at a reasonable cost to
businesses, educational institutions, and individuals alike.
We understand that Apple may wish to implement a strict
return policy on the old ROMs to prevent unauthorized
Macintosh clones. We also understand that Apple may wish to
add additional features to such an upgrade, and that those
features may add to the time required. A quality product is
worth the wait required for its production, as is shown by
the eagerly-anticipated System 7.0. Still, we hope that
Apple Computer will recognize the unfulfilled potential of
those Macintoshes with "dirty" ROMs and provide them with
the means to realize their full 32-bit potential.
We thank you for your commitment to the Macintosh User
Community.
--
Adam C. Engst (best) ace@tidbits.tcnet.ithaca.ny.us
(also) ace@tidbits.uucp
(if all else fails) pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
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Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh news journal