mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard) (06/19/89)
In article <659@whizz.uucp> alexc@whizz.UUCP (Alex M. Chan) writes: > I agreed. But in my perosnal view, who would clone a MAC ? > To me it sees to be just a toy for kids to play with or a > fancy typing machine for people would like that "mouse" and those > stupid sounds... and stuff... My, how clever you are. How informed. You prefer a UNIX box. So do I. But: 1) You and I are computer-heads. The power, and thus the complexity, of UNIX neither overwhelms us nor intimidates us. 2) I use my Mac, not my Sun for word processing, because there's simply no faster, easier way to get professional documents produced. That goes for memos right on up to book manuscripts. Yes there are things that Scribe and Tex can do that MS Word (et al) can't. But is it really worth the overhead? 3) The Mac solved the user interface problem. It didn't perfect it. But it drastically increased the non-computer-heads access to computer power. If you don't need an interface, fine. But there are hundreds of people in my company doing things they couldn't possibly have done on their own without a Mac. Meanwhile, we have closets full of PCs gathering dust. There are educational programs being written that would not fly in a non-Mac-like environment. And most importantly :-), there are games whose success is due largely to the sophistication of the Mac's interface. 4) Your assessment may have been valid in the days of the 128k Macs, when there were no resident compilers and little software. But with all the Macs being bought, and all the people around the world doing serious data manipulation and text/image processing it is as if you were arguing for a return to punch cards. -- unsigned *Wayne_Mesard(); "Matthew X. Williams (Tony) This is Matthew's MESARD@BBN.COM first appearance here on Earth. His hobbies BBN, Cambridge, MA include kick-boxing and arson." -from Vassar's Commencement Musical playbill.
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (06/20/89)
In article <41604@bbn.COM>, mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard) writes: > 3) The Mac solved the user interface problem. It didn't perfect it. The Xerox Star solved the user interface problem. The Mac took this solution and tried to cram it into a 128K box. Peices broke off. Now, today's Mac II has more power than the Xerox Star... but it's still crippled by the requirements of that 128K box. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.