Thread by @gravislizard

so, for anyone I know who might be looking to get an Apple IIgs: you're going to be tempted by the Floppy Emu, which is definitely a cool device, but there's some caveats you should know. I'll write this in a blog post later I guess

First: It can emulate a 5.25", 3.5" or HDD, but it can't do more than one at once. This is a way bigger problem than it seems.

Data island management with old computers is always a problem, but the iigs - being more modern-ish compared to e.g. 8-bitters or a plain // - is kinda iffier because you really want a hard drive if you want to run multiple apps, uh, ever. If you wanna use it like a Mac.

So you get a hard drive image loaded with GSOS 6.0.1 and it boots up and runs. Great. Now how do you get programs onto it?

GS native software tends to come on 3.5" disk. Oops. You can't - as far as I can tell! - plug one in along with the Floppy Emu. Maybe there's a trick - I tried it, there's only one way to hook it up, and it won't boot off the HDD anymore.

You could convert some software to 5.25", write it to disk and load it in. You could also plug the HDD image into an emulator and slipstream software in that way, but christ. What fun is that? Why even bother at that point?

I mean. I mean. That's not true, in that if your INTENT is to use the machine for a PURPOSE, then whether it's an "authentic experience" (having to install the software etc) might not matter to you. Use an emulator, it's absolutely worth it. 99% less hassle.

Another option might be to get a second floppy card? I'm not sure if the gs can do that? You could also get a CFFA (no personal experience with them) and just use the floppy emu to... emulate... floppies...

what *I* did was hook it up to my Performa 630, which has native DIN-plug Localtalk. I convert iigs disk images to Shrinkit file archives, FTP them to an AFP server, download them to the Mac, then Localtalk them to the iigs. It's "efficient"