TIL: Apple shipped new IIgs machines with System 6.0

[NJRoadfan]

Browsing the Internet Archive, I came across this: https://archive.org/details/apple-iigs-owners-guide

A manual I didn't even know existed. Apple updated the IIgs Owner's Guide in 1992 and packed in System 6.0. This has to be pretty rare considering System 6.0 came out in roughly April-May 1992 and the IIgs was discontinued in December. Seems like alot of effort to completely update a manual to match the System 6.0's manual's style only to kill off the machine a few months later!

 

[Mk.558]

I won't leave you hanging alone...

I flipped through the whole manual. I wonder how much updating work there actually was.

 

[Arbee]

The decision on shutting down IIgs production probably was made in September when the Mark Twain announcement was supposed to happen and then didn't. Prior to that I imagine it was business as usual for the Apple II team. Interesting though!

 

[NJRoadfan]

Its pretty absurd to think the Mark Twain update would happen, even back then. The machine was reaching 6 years old and the updates were minimum. It would have been nice if the Ethernet card came out, if only to have an officially supported option with AppleTalk and netbooting on the platform.

 

[Arbee]

Agreed, the ROM 3 should've been that spec in 1989. By then it wasn't enough.

 

[Byte Knight]

Thanks for sharing! I never even knew about GS/OS when I had my IIgs BITD - it wasn't until I started to get into the IIgs again in the early 2000's that I discovered it. Of course, I didn't have a HD back then. All ll I did was use ProTerm to get on BBS's and play games downloaded from those BBS's!

 

[slipperygrey]

From my own experience in the American tech industry, those “big picture” decisions do come fast and furious sometimes. I think Apple execs kept everyone oblivious it up until the last minute in case they want to change their minds. Killing off the IIGS without a successor was clearly the final nail in the coffin for the Apple II platform as a whole.

 

[NJRoadfan]

Thanks to cvxmelody, there is a photo of an actual boxed machine that appeared on ebay in the past: https://www.cvxmelody.net/ROM_3_Apple_IIGS_manufactured_1992_complete_boxed.jpg