Keep using that old Mac

For all those people with old "classic" style Macs lying around the place unused, Jeff Weitzman maintains a site listing practical uses for these elder statesman of the Macintosh way.

Also the Low End Mac is a good site for those people who still rely on these classic Macs, and other Macintoshes of similar vintage. The Low End Mac maintains a listing older computers and the upgrades available for them, as well as lots of links to other information sites for Low End Macs.

On the subject of upgrading old Macs, Techweb has an interesting article about the problems of longer lasting Macs. Its something we've all become used too, but something that could also be killing of the Macintosh's market share.

Basically, we all like our computers to last a long time, it means we get a better return for our investment. But Apple has made its Power Mac computers (all those that come with either 601 or 604 processors anyway) so good that there is no incentive for people to trade them in for newer Macs. Basically since nearly all of them are upgradeable to G3 processors (using upgrade cards from third party companies) people are upgrading these older Macs instead of buying the new Macs from Apple, causing Apple's market share to slip, and jeopardising Apple's profitability. It seems Apple has built such good machines, nobody wants to buy new ones.

Sort of reminds me of an old story I heard (probably false) of a light bulb company that went out of business because they built such good light bulbs that nobody bought any more light bulbs. The old ones just didn't wear out before the company ran out of money.

Filemaker, Inc.

Claris . . . er, Filemaker, Inc. put up a Question and Answer document about the restructuring. It answered the questions about what is happening to all those former Claris programs that were not dealt with in the original press release. Basically Apple is taking over the marketing of all Claris programs other then Filemaker and Home Page — these two stay with the new Filemaker, Inc.

The fates of the former Claris programs at Apple is still uncertain (all except Claris Works, of course). Some people are of the opinion that the best that can be expected by Apple with regard to some of these products is that they will be incorporated into Claris Works in some way.

By the way, seems that www.claris.com no longer works, so the Q&A document I refer to is not available anymore. The best I could do is this letter to Claris customers on the Australian Claris