If you want to get new Apple II software, there are a few ways to go about it.

You could try a desktop browser on the Pi, such as the included Epiphany (a.k.a. Web), Midori, or Netsurf, or install an alternative such as Chromium, the open-source cousin of Google Chrome, or Iceweasel, which is a rebranded Firefox.

You can also download with a modern computer, and copy to your Pi over your network. If you don’t want to immediately create a real floppy, see the next post for what to do with your downloads.

Or, for maximum fun, you can browse and download with your Apple II, because A2CLOUD provides you with the stuff on your Pi that you need. My general advice here is to just dive in and try these out if you’re not familiar with them. You’ll find no shortage of help for most of these if you search for it.

Unless you’re using ProTERM or Spectrum on an Apple IIgs, remember to hold down solidApple when pressing the arrow keys when you’re using these programs.

lynx: a text-only web browser which can access simply laid out sites. Examples: lynx ivanx.com, or a download site, like lynx mirrors.apple2.org.za. ProTERM and Spectrum work better for lynx than Z-Link does. (You can also try out alternative text-only web browsers.)

links: another text-only web browser you might, or might not, prefer to Lynx. If you see only a black screen when you start it, press the ESC key to see the menu.

cftp: What you’ll probably spend a lot of time using if you want new Apple II software. It’s for logging into FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers. Unlike the traditional command line FTP program, cftp is full-screen, uses the arrow keys, and is easy. Example: cftp ftp.gno.org

ftp: The traditional command line FTP program. Example: ftp ftp.gno.org. It uses (mostly) typical Unix commands. When asked for username, enter “anonymous” and then anything for the password. Use the usual directory listing and navigation commands (cd, pwd, ls), to browse the site, then get filename to download a file from a site, or put filename to upload a file to a site. To see the current local directory (the one you’ll be downloading into or uploading from), type !pwd, and to change it, type lcd directoryPath. You can see all commands by typing help.

wget: a simple program that can download a full URL from an FTP or web site in a single command, e.g: wget http://appleii.ivanx.com/slammer/files/SLAMMER111P.DSK