lordkenmore
Well-known member
What is perhaps surprising is how long it took for the 8 bit machines to completely vanish. I know Apple was still making Apple II machines into the 90s, and apparently the Commodore C64 was around into the 90s as well.
Although I suppose there still was a market. Some people probably bought not knowing any better. ("I know my brother bought one of these in 1983! It must be good!") There would be some sales because of legacy software--schools probably helped keep the Apple II series alive. One option for the Macintosh LC was an expansion board that was basically an Apple IIe. The idea was that schools could migrate to a Mac, but have access to all the software they'd bought.
I suppose another aspect keeping 8 bit machines alive might have been price--a cheap way of getting a computer, even if it was horribly out of date. Ironically, if I were the person I am now back when I got my first computer, and if I had taken a realistic view of my actual needs, I might well have ended up with an 8 bit machine. The Mac was fun--but a Laser 128 (Apple II compatible) with AppleWorks (which I had some experience with) would have been "good enough" for the bulk of my school work.
Although I suppose there still was a market. Some people probably bought not knowing any better. ("I know my brother bought one of these in 1983! It must be good!") There would be some sales because of legacy software--schools probably helped keep the Apple II series alive. One option for the Macintosh LC was an expansion board that was basically an Apple IIe. The idea was that schools could migrate to a Mac, but have access to all the software they'd bought.
I suppose another aspect keeping 8 bit machines alive might have been price--a cheap way of getting a computer, even if it was horribly out of date. Ironically, if I were the person I am now back when I got my first computer, and if I had taken a realistic view of my actual needs, I might well have ended up with an 8 bit machine. The Mac was fun--but a Laser 128 (Apple II compatible) with AppleWorks (which I had some experience with) would have been "good enough" for the bulk of my school work.