Apple II Forever at KansasFest 2007

When Apple evangelists long ago proclaimed "Apple II Forever!", they probably expected "forever" to be less than 30 years.  Yet here we are partying like it's 1977 at KansasFest, the 19th annual Apple II expo.

The Apple II, the world's first personal computer, was officially discontinued in 1993.  Yet hardcore enthusiasts continue to find new ways to adapt old software and hardware to today's needs -- and in the rare instances that 'it can't be done', we devise new technology.  The Apple II attracts people of a certain mindset and spirit: a creativity, resilience, dedication, history and nonconformity that is often lacking among today's increasingly technocentric society.

Such people are here at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, where I'm attending my tenth KFest.  I'm thrilled to see attendance at its highest since 2003, when the keynote speech was delivered by Steve Wozniak.  Friends old and new have traveled here from throughout the world, including Boston, Toronto, and Brisbane, Australia.  Over the next few days, we will showcase our setups, present sessions, and exchange information.  We'll play hard, code hard, and wait until we get home next week before being hit hard by the sleep we won't be getting this week.

The first official session of this year's KFest was today's opening keynote by Mr. David Szetela, the first editor-in-chief of Nibble Magazine, one of the premiere Apple II magazines of the Eighties.  His resume also includes a seven-year stint with Apple Computer, both building and managing Apple's Evangelism department and managing Apple's European Developer operations in Paris.  An enthusiastic speaker, Mr. Szetela trawled his memories of an era many considered long past, reminiscing that his fascination with the nascent personal computing industry led him to let his master's degree in flavor chemistry (a branch of food science) lay dormant as the Apple II motivated him to pursue a different career.

"I eliminated the TRS-80 from consideration, and the Commodore PET was a little too weird," Mr. Szetela recalled.  "The Apple II was clearly the one I had to lust after."  Inspired by a magazine photo portraying Kent Williams and his wife Roberta, creators of the King's Quest line of adventure games, as millionaire programmers enjoying a hot tub-equipped mansion, Mr. Szetela knew that being in and around programming was the life for him.

His time at Apple was tumultuous, bringing him in contact with several infamous and historical figures, such as John Sculley and Steve Jobs.  He credits them with both Apple's successes and failures.

"By 1987, it had become clear to me that the Apple II was dead," Mr. Szetela observed.  "It was a caste system: the cool people were working on the Mac stuff; the non-cool people were working on the Apple II.  But even if it was doomed, it still deserved to be supported 100%."

Mr. Szetela attributes that dichotomy to Steve Jobs' ultimate goal.  "He's definitely after world domination, and he saw he could do that with the Mac, not the Apple II.  The iPod is just another tentacle in that territory, as is the iPhone."

Mr. Szetela's speech was laden with other relevant remarks, such as noting that he gave Pat McGovern his first email address (on the now-defunct AppleLink service), and the dangers of writing about Apple in a magazine (Nibble) that also accepted advertising from Apple -- a pitfall he pointed out was recently encountered by IDG's own PC World.

Nibble Magazine's archives are now available on DVD-ROM, but its life as a print magazine ended with the heyday of the computer it covered.  "We were having too much fun.  We didn't want to believe the Apple II was going away, and we didn't want to be under the yolk of Ziff-Davis," Mr. Szetela explained of why Nibble didn't evolve but instead faded away.  Yet that same determination and independent streak are why his audience is still using Apple II computers, even decades later.  It's what has both us and Mr. Szetela flying all the way to Kansas City to spend hot summer days and nights to celebrate Christmas in July with new products, demonstrations, and hacks.  We're making USB, Bluetooth, and Ethernet cards for our Apple II computers.  We're writing Web browsers, IRC clients, Twitter tools, and more.  And a certain Computerworld editor is using his Apple II to write his blog posts.

We too don't want to believe that the Apple II is going away -- and KFest is all the evidence we need.

[Full disclosure: I am on the planning committee for KansasFest and am editor-in-chief of Juiced.GS, the last remaining Apple II publication still in print.]

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