starr@shell.UUCP (Bob Starr) (07/06/84)
I have been reading the letters and reviews of the Macintosh which have been swamping the computer press lately. Most of the letters begin "I have had my Macintosh a week now, and boy is it wonderful and boy IBM should be scared...." and other such mouth foaming. I always wondered about those letters... the Mac may be easy enough to use that it was choice #1 of people who had lobotomies, but christ, you don't know enough about a machine in a week to rave about it, sell your mother for it, etc. Well, boys and girls, *finally* I am seeing realistic appraisals of the Mac (from people who *really* tried to *use* the thing for a *real* application). They appear in the latest issue of Byte (July). One thing to read is the editorial (p.6) from Phil Lemmons (Byte Editor in Chief), and the other is from our old friend Jerry Pournelle in his "Chaos Manor" column (p.312-316 & p.376-377). I won't tell you what they say, but Phil Lemmons closes his editorial saying "truly friendly computers, like friendly humans, give their human friends credit for some intelligence." Personal note: All I have seen Macs and Lisas used for is generating cute little notes to hang around the computer room! They just pass the IBM PC by when it comes to doing "serious" work!