Thread
Classic II: Second-best Compact Ever?
Can we all agree that since the SE/30 is just under God in our universe, that the Classic II comes in second? Please? It's really a great little Mac!
Sorry but I voted no and ill tel you why.
If you want the compact with the best performance the SE/30 wins. that's a plain fact.
Now the classic II might come in second in that list but it doesn't have anything the SE/30 doesn't offer.
now the plus on the other hand does offer something else. A silent floppy only mac!
opinions may very about if this is a good or bad thing but it still offers you something else to choose from if your not into high performance (for an old B&W compact that is of course) and the plus is the best choice in this category.
You could also go for the SE FDHD with 2 internal floppy drives if you want to stick to floppies and don't care about the fan. Or perhaps even a 2 floppy SE/30 but ive personally never seen those unless they were modded to include a hard drive aswell.
Besides, the original floppy only macs were the best looking compacts in my opinion. And that makes them the best looking computers ever because nothing beets the old compact look!
so second comes the plus!
If you want the compact with the best performance the SE/30 wins. that's a plain fact.
Now the classic II might come in second in that list but it doesn't have anything the SE/30 doesn't offer.
now the plus on the other hand does offer something else. A silent floppy only mac!
opinions may very about if this is a good or bad thing but it still offers you something else to choose from if your not into high performance (for an old B&W compact that is of course) and the plus is the best choice in this category.
You could also go for the SE FDHD with 2 internal floppy drives if you want to stick to floppies and don't care about the fan. Or perhaps even a 2 floppy SE/30 but ive personally never seen those unless they were modded to include a hard drive aswell.
Besides, the original floppy only macs were the best looking compacts in my opinion. And that makes them the best looking computers ever because nothing beets the old compact look!
so second comes the plus!
But the SE/30 isn't even as "good" as the Plus! 
Only faster and more expandable...
Only faster and more expandable...
Classic I !!!!
You all make me a saaaaaaaaaad panda...
PLUS PLUS PLUS PLUS!
now i admit i have not used a SE/30 - but you know, its kinda just too good.
PLUS PLUS PLUS PLUS!
now i admit i have not used a SE/30 - but you know, its kinda just too good.
PLUS PLUS PLUS PLUS!
why? it did SO MUCH on _so_little_. I know it was limited, but think about it. How the hell do you cram a GUI into 128KB or ram, and a 400KB floppy disc. that is HARD. but apple did it. It proves that you don't need that much resources to do the impossible. Personally, I think that the Apple II was the best (the II series, all of them) because they seem to be the most hackable machines out there.
I mean, heck, the thing tells you what all the address lines are, how to make your own cards for it, and the thing is so darn configurable, it's not funny.
As much as I like the mac (68k,PPC, Intel) I still think the Apple II series was the best computer out there.
Besides, for an interesting bit of trivia, did you know that they got the Finder running on the Apple II? that's why there is a mouse for the apple II
it was mainly made for the development of the finder
I mean, heck, the thing tells you what all the address lines are, how to make your own cards for it, and the thing is so darn configurable, it's not funny.
As much as I like the mac (68k,PPC, Intel) I still think the Apple II series was the best computer out there.
Besides, for an interesting bit of trivia, did you know that they got the Finder running on the Apple II? that's why there is a mouse for the apple II
it was mainly made for the development of the finder
I love your poll. Yay silly polls!
I've never used a Classic II, but the specs look like they're OK.
I've never used a Classic II, but the specs look like they're OK.
Can you give a reference for that story? I know they did MousePaint on Apple II (for the IIe with Mouse Card) and that was essentially a port of MacPaint. I think the Desktop programs for Apple II were later than that - certainly the IIgs ones were.Besides, for an interesting bit of trivia, did you know that they got the Finder running on the Apple II? that's why there is a mouse for the apple II
it was mainly made for the development of the finder
read about jeff raskin
He said that during the process of making the macintosh, they had built a serial board and a program that could use the mouse. So the mouse was originally designed for the Mac. which first went into the Lisa because the mac hadn't shipped yet.
During the development, they figured out how to get the 6502 in the Apple II to display non-laggy feedback from the mouse. They used the Apple II to boot the Mac through the serial port.
However, to design the finder, they did it through the Apple II, running the GUI on the Apple II (which probably had the Apple II desktop OS come out after the Mac)
Also, another bit of trivia, the Mac 128k was originally going to use the 6502, but they found out it wasn't powerful enough. So they chose the new up-and-coming 68k
Check out the Jeff Raskin Story:
http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/index.html
He said that during the process of making the macintosh, they had built a serial board and a program that could use the mouse. So the mouse was originally designed for the Mac. which first went into the Lisa because the mac hadn't shipped yet.
During the development, they figured out how to get the 6502 in the Apple II to display non-laggy feedback from the mouse. They used the Apple II to boot the Mac through the serial port.
However, to design the finder, they did it through the Apple II, running the GUI on the Apple II (which probably had the Apple II desktop OS come out after the Mac)
Also, another bit of trivia, the Mac 128k was originally going to use the 6502, but they found out it wasn't powerful enough. So they chose the new up-and-coming 68k
Check out the Jeff Raskin Story:
http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/index.html
Take a look at the date
notice that the Mac came out in 1984, that has a copyright of 1985-1986. WELL AFTER the intro of the Lisa and the Mac
Jef Raskin wanted the Motorola 6809 ( http://www-sul.stanford.edu/mac/primary/docs/bom/jan80.html , and even earlier, http://www-sul.stanford.edu/mac/primary/docs/bom/macpoints.html).
This story from folklore sounds like what you are referring to:
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Apple_II_Mouse_Card.txt
Jef Raskin seems to claim a whole lot of inventions that seem more likely the result of many people's work. There's even been a little war of words between him and Bruce Horn that you can find traces of on the net in this regard. Nevertheless, although Raskin certainly blows his own trumpet with considerable vigour, he was an amazing individual and we have a lot to thank him for.
This story from folklore sounds like what you are referring to:
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Apple_II_Mouse_Card.txt
Jef Raskin seems to claim a whole lot of inventions that seem more likely the result of many people's work. There's even been a little war of words between him and Bruce Horn that you can find traces of on the net in this regard. Nevertheless, although Raskin certainly blows his own trumpet with considerable vigour, he was an amazing individual and we have a lot to thank him for.
Both of us will always have a soft spot for the Classic II. Crippled though it was, one of that model, with only six out of the possible 10MB of RAM, a 40MB internal HDD and an 80MB external served this household magnificently for three years. With WriteNow 3 and FileMaker Pro 2, and a StyleWriter II, it plugged steadily away at maintenace of a 10,000-plus record music catalogue for preparation of broadcast programmes, and printed them in format for publication. It took care of essays for ge's undergraduate work, our correspondence, and committee and Board minutes for our joint hobby of broadcasting.
It was infraseded (You'll understand 'infraseded' if you know the LC II/Performa 400.) by a Performa 400 only because of the larger and colour display, which suited ge's eyes better. Nonetheless, Elsie coped with ge's Honours year, and was then replaced with a Snow iMac/500 DVSE for her PhD.
Both Algernon and Elsie are still with us. He has 10MB of RAM, an EN/SC connection to my LAN, and an FPU (the only available upgrade for a Classic II) now, and she has morphed into a Q605 hybrid with 132MB of RAM and a full 68040.
In my opinion the clean lines of the Classic and Classic II are such as to make them the epitomes of the 'Classic' appellation, never minding that both were far from blazing fast at anything.
de
It was infraseded (You'll understand 'infraseded' if you know the LC II/Performa 400.) by a Performa 400 only because of the larger and colour display, which suited ge's eyes better. Nonetheless, Elsie coped with ge's Honours year, and was then replaced with a Snow iMac/500 DVSE for her PhD.
Both Algernon and Elsie are still with us. He has 10MB of RAM, an EN/SC connection to my LAN, and an FPU (the only available upgrade for a Classic II) now, and she has morphed into a Q605 hybrid with 132MB of RAM and a full 68040.
In my opinion the clean lines of the Classic and Classic II are such as to make them the epitomes of the 'Classic' appellation, never minding that both were far from blazing fast at anything.
de
Here Here! I do like how smooth the cases of the Classic machines are; they seem a lot more modern-looking than the ridges-everywhere SE and SE/30 cases.
If I turn my head to the left, from where I sit between two iMac 500s with only the desklamp on, in the semi-gloom I can see a 512Ke standing on its overgrown floppy drive (Hard Disk 20), an SE/30, a Classic II, a CC, a IIci with Portrait Display, and a Q605 (genuine) with its bug-eyed Multiple Scan 14.
It's the simplicity of line of the Classic II that catches the eye and makes the Mac instantly identifiable.
de
It's the simplicity of line of the Classic II that catches the eye and makes the Mac instantly identifiable.
de
I still kick myself for surrendering the Classic II with FPU that I did my PhD on... :-( System 6.0.8L for Mathematica work to maximise speed and memory, THINK C for coding, and MPW for coding and shell and LaTeX, and a noisy external 105MB SCSI drive for workspace AND backup!
And, I must add, Tetris for notoriously frequent "mental recovery sessions"
considering this is about compact macs, i say the 5500 takes the cake . Are you referring to the all in one in general, or the B&W Macs?
Because if you say compact macs, i could argue that the laptops are compact. so, which do you mean?
. Are you referring to the all in one in general, or the B&W Macs?Because if you say compact macs, i could argue that the laptops are compact. so, which do you mean?
Compact AIOs made prior to 1994. 9 or 10 inch CRT maximum. Portable, but not via battery.
Actually, I was just thinking of the B&W 9-inchers.
I voted for the Classic II as second best among the black and whites, but I really think the Color Classic and Color Classic II were the best of the bunch and I consider the 5xx machines to be "All In Ones" rather than compacts. A compact can be an "All In One" but an "All In One" can't be a compact.
I will give my vote to the Classic ll as the second best compact mac. Last of the line of black and white compact macs. The clean modern look is easy on the eyes. With the 1.44 floppy it is more usable than the early 400-800 floppy drives. The 16mhz cpu works at comfortable pace. I would just love to put the optional fpu into my Classic ll, but they are a bit difficult to locate.
my classic pines to be a classic 2
come to think of it i pine for it to bea classic 2 as well
and i wil be quite happy when my color classic finally arrives with a set of system 7 floppies so i can finally escape 6
system 6 and myself do not get on well so il be glad to get rid of it
as far as looks go the classic look the best and i prefer the classic 2 over the se\30
yes i can put 128 mb ram in to it but why woudl i want to ?
most of the so called expansion abilities are nigh on impossible to find here rendering almost all of its plus points moot
in other words i prefer the classic 2
come to think of it i pine for it to bea classic 2 as well
and i wil be quite happy when my color classic finally arrives with a set of system 7 floppies so i can finally escape 6
system 6 and myself do not get on well so il be glad to get rid of it
as far as looks go the classic look the best and i prefer the classic 2 over the se\30
yes i can put 128 mb ram in to it but why woudl i want to ?
most of the so called expansion abilities are nigh on impossible to find here rendering almost all of its plus points moot
in other words i prefer the classic 2
They are great little machines!
I myself have two.
(they look cool too!)
I myself have two.
(they look cool too!)
I'd say yes if mine didn't have the whistle. Anybody else know what I'm talking about? I know LCGuy does.
My Classic whistled unless you'd thunk it on the side.