01/08/2023 at 09:45 by Michael Miskulin – Apple is best known to people today for the iPhone, but the company’s origins lie in the personal computer sector. The Apple II home computer came onto the market for the first time in 1977 and also brought some product copiers onto the scene. In the early 1980s, a company called Franklin produced the Apple II clone Ace 100. That device came with what is perhaps the most bizarre PC manual of all time.
This bizarre guide to the Ace 100 is featured by author David Friedman in his latest newsletter (via PCGamer). The PC manual begins with a more or less apt introduction, which reads: “Since you’re reading this, you’ve probably already been convinced by a fast-talking salesman that the ACE will complete your life. […] Eliminate those doubts! Put your doubts aside and go ahead anyway! You CAN put your ACE to good use!” Other wisdoms include that personal computers are “just super-fast, super-expensive calculators” and that the device’s role in life is “more of a footman’s role than a… operator exists.
Things get downright bizarre a little later, with a chapter entitled “The Native Territory of the Trumpeter Swan.” It states: “If you weren’t fascinated by birds, you probably wouldn’t be reading this part of the manual first.” Behind it is simply the chapter with the first steps. The handbook’s author is quick to admit that the title of the chapter was chosen to draw attention. And so the entire manual is full of little jokes – jokes for computer fans mind you. It can be read between the lines again and again that the author of the handbook was probably very skeptical about the computer industry.
“These licensing agreements usually end up with you having to give away your life, your house and your firstborn child. No one in their right mind would sign something like that. But computer professionals do. Are they of insane mind? Possibly, but signing of a license agreement does not prove that,” it says in a later chapter. Particularly curious: the manual even advertises PC piracy. Interestingly, Franklin was later sued by Apple for the copy of the Apple OS used in the Ace 100.
Quelle: IronicSans, via PCGamer
