robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (01/15/84)
Since it is so much more fun to say "I told you so" in advance, I want to comment on Dartmouth's gamble again. Apparently there will soon be lots of a NEW, UNTESTED PRODUCT (untested by real customers, that is), the McIntosh, on campus at Dartmouth, for the sucker--excuse me, the students to use. Apple may pull off a miracle here, but the likely expectation is for: (1) Long delays in delivery, machines not ready when needed. (2) A lot of shakedown, hardware for sure and maybe software too, in the first year of widespread use. I would rather subject my student body to a tried and true technology, and let someone else try the machines out before I buy them on a large scale. Good luck Dartmouth! You have my sympathy; I'm not sure I should admire your courage. - Toby Robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison or: allegra!eosp1!robison (maybe: princeton!eosp1!robison)
preece@uicsl.UUCP (01/19/84)
#R:eosp1:-52100:uicsl:7000041:000:999 uicsl!preece Jan 18 13:08:00 1984 Dartmouth has based its campus computing on 'new, untried technology' before (that's where timesharing and Basic came from) and I suspect it will survive this gamble, too. There will be a lot of pressure on Apple to support this project -- Dartmouth has been very good at making its computing innovations visible, and a widespread Apple failure would not be the kind of publicity Apple wants to get out of the arrangement. Other things being equal, it's better to be on the leading edge of capability rather than the trailing edge. I'm sure there will be some problems in getting things established, but I'd be very surprised if those teething problems lasted very long in the context of a long range network plan. Maybe Apple will move up on the priority list for True Basic versions with this deal. scott preece ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece [nb I realize Dartmouth isn't the only progenitor for timesharing, but I don't think anyone had an earlier system of comparable power and availability.]