My Plan to Save Apple Computer

(Or why they hired Steve Jobs instead of me.)

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Apple hasn't been doing so well lately. Since Windows 95 came out, and people started reading the section Switching from Macintosh to Windows 95 in the Windows 95 Resource Kit, they have been running away from the Macintosh in droves (suggested reading for anyone interested in an example of the smug corporate world domination attitude of Microsoft). I'm willing to admit that I too like the robust multi-tasking of 95, and the long file names are great, but what took Microsoft so long? It took them 10 years to clone the Mac! And what about desktop publishing? When I want to create a sales flyer guess which computer I use? The Mac, of course. For some reason the Wintel industry still hasn't calibrated their monitors for proper gray scale and color definition. Trying to process photos on the Wintel platform is impossible.

Well, I've come up with a plan for Apple to recapture the personal computer market. A few weeks ago I read in EE Times about how the audio electronics industry was having a great time converting back to vacuum tubes. Seems some audiophiles are willing to pay from $2,000 up to as much as $15,000 for a good tube amplifier. Companies have been scrambling to find surplus tubes to use in their designs, and some European & Russian companies are making big bucks getting back into the tube manufacturing business.

Apple named the Macintosh after an apple that Steve Jobs had experience picking during his student years in Washington. They immediately got into trademark trouble with another company making tube amplifiers and calling them Macintosh. Eventually Jobs won the right to use the Macintosh name and Apple Computer was saved by moving to the 32-bit Motorola 68000 (way before Wintel moved to 32-bits). This turns out to have been a great move, already giving Apple name recognition in the tube business.

Here's the plan. Apple must develop a tube based personal computer. It was done before. The first computers used tubes. There may still be some plans around somewhere. Even if they don't use tubes for the CPU they should at least use tubes in the sound circuits. I can see it now, Macintosh - PowerTube Edition.

Who cares about the Pentium or PowerPC when you can have 32 of these on your desktop! There are even 3 volt tubes available if you don't want to use a heat sink.

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© James S. Gibbons 1987-2015