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By now I'm guessing a lot of you have seen the Open
Letter to Apple by Ward W.
Vuillemot. According to one copy posted on the Web, Mr.
Vuillemot emailed his tirade to MacCentral and MacInTouch, as well
as posting to the DealMac Forum, Apple Support Forum, MacNN Forum,
and MacDebate Forum.
I guess >Low End Mac's message boards just don't cut it for
Mr. V. ;-)
Anyhow, Mr. V. is all pissed that the "Apple G3 (gossamer)
desktop" (I have to assume he means the Blue & White Power Macintosh G3
[Yosemite], since it was the only desktop "Apple G3" to offer
DVD drives) he bought in 1999 doesn't work as he wants it to under
Mac OS X version 10.1 (which he refers to as Mac OX
10.1, sigh).
Thanks to feedback from several readers, I've learned that
Gossamer was the code name for the beige
Power Mac G3, which was introduced in November 1997, upgraded
to 300 MHz and a DVD-ROM option added in March 1998, and
discontinued in January 1999. I hadn't been aware DVD-ROM drives,
let alone a hardware decoder card, had been available for this
model. I'll have to contact Dan and have him update the LEM profile
for this model (done - dk). Updates to this article are enclosed in
square brackets. AO, 11/16
I don't usually deal with events in the real world - making up
rumors is much more fun - but the sheer stupidity of this
complaint boggles the mind.
Mr. V. notes, "When I purchased the computer, Apple sold the DVD
drive without a decoder," then made it an optional
build-to-order (BTO) feature in a revision of the Power Mac G3
released one day before he received his computer (but 14 weeks
after he ordered it). After two [or possibly three] years of
badgering Apple, Mr. V. convinced them to install the DVD
decoder in his computer.
Although this card was not a standard feature on the
version of the Power Mac G3 he purchased, Mr. V. now complains that
the Personality Card he insisted Apple provide cannot be used with
"Mac OS 10.1." Duh!
Thanks to his insistence that Apple provide a nonstandard
component to his computer, that component doesn't work with an
OS released two [or possibly three] years later. So sad.
The Power Mac G3 apparently worked perfectly before the
modification Mr. V. insisted on, but now he's all in a
tizzy because his computer has no sound or DVD support - at
least under OS X 10.1. Curiously, Mr. V. doesn't note
whether he has sound with Mac OS 9.2.1. His failure to state this
leads me to believe that there is no problem under Mac OS
9.x. (More on that below!)
Yes Mr. V. makes the ridiculous claim that Apple
broke his computer! Remember, Apple never offered him the
Personality Card; Mr. V. fought them for two [or three] years until
Apple agreed to put it in - probably just to get him off their
back.
Mr. V. goes further to claim that running under Mac OS 9.x is
not an option for him, although he doesn't explain why. This is
especially bizarre since the Yosemite G3 shipped with Mac OS 8.5
and clearly supports Mac OS 9.x.
Based on everything Mr. V. has posted, he believes his computer
was broken from the day he bought it - first, because it
didn't include the DVD decoder card that wasn't even an option when
he ordered it, and second, because now that Apple has installed the
card (after he badgered them for two [or three] years), he finds
the card doesn't work under Mac OS X 10.1.
Mr. V. goes out of his way to avoid telling us that the card
works under Mac OS 9.x or why the classic Mac OS is no longer an
option for him. Instead, he wants Apple to drop everything
and provide OS X drivers for his nonstandard configuration,
replace the card with a card compatible with OS X, or provide
him with a whole new computer that "equals or exceeds the
current system while returning the lost functionality."
Oops, he just admitted that he had that functionality
before installing Mac OS X 10.1, an operating system that
remains incomplete. With patience (either waiting for a future
OS X revision or living with the classic Mac OS), Apple may
eventually support his configuration, but that's not good enough
for him. Instead, he hopes to cobble together a class action
suit against Apple for not supporting the modification to his
hardware that Apple resisted providing for two [or three]
years.
You'd think an engineer would understand these things,
but rather than go back and use what worked (Mac OS 9.x), Mr. V.
has coerced Apple into giving him enough rope to hang
himself. His online rants indicate he's already tied a noose
and put it around his neck.
- Anne Onymus
Further thoughts on 11/16: Andrew W. Hill took a close look at
the specs of Mr. V's machine. The Gestalt ID definitely points to a
beige G3, not the blue & white one. It also notes a clock speed
of 315 MHz, which means Mr. V. has overclocked his CPU (see
Clocking the Power Mac G3 for details)
or OS X misreports clock speed, since there was no 315 MHz
model from Apple. Interesting....
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