schitre@euler.claremont.edu (03/23/91)
In article <1991Mar22.145326.27445@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu>, medlin@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (Roger Medlin) writes: > Best I can figure (correct me if I am wrong), my Macintosh SE/30 is rated > at somewhere between 2 and 3 MIPS (not too bad), but when you consider > that the new NeXT (retail priced at around $5,000) checks in at around 15 > MIPS, I question the future of Macintosh. > > Comments ? I made the mistake of becoming a dedicated Mac fan even before there was a Mac. When the LISA came out, I got to see it, and I thought it was really cool. After that my dad bought a Mac +, and later, when I went off to college, I bought a Mac SE. I was broke for a very long time paying for that SE, and even now, with all the money I spent on upgrades it's a pathetically useless machine for the engineering stuff I want to do on it. Out of the entire Mac lineup the only one I think is worth owning is the IIfx, and it's so expensive that I could buy a DEC VAXStation for less (and my employer did just that). If Apple wants to stay competitive the price cuts they announced are going to have to be followed by equally large cuts very soon, and they're going to have to move up to the 68040 at its top speed, or possibly into high speed RISC architecture. While my original liking for the Mac was its operating system, which any idiot can use (more or less), it's getting pretty stale. One of the computer gurus here likes to call "user-friendly" "expert-hostile", and I'd have to agree. I've gotten beyond the Mac system (which sucks memory like there's no tomorrow) and want something better. I haven't tried A/UX, since I can't afford a machine to run it on, but I think A/UX is going to be more and more standard for the high-end Mac. Something better than the current system has to be developed for the low-end Mac. Well, that's my cent worth. Personally, given the money, I'd buy a DEC VAXStation 3100 M38 SPX rather than a Mac IIfx. It's more powerful, and it's not user-friendly, but I can do a lot more with it. Sunil
kucharsk@Solbourne.COM (William Kucharski) (03/23/91)
In article <1991Mar22.150321.1@euler.claremont.edu> schitre@euler.claremont.edu writes: > While my original liking for the Mac was its operating system, which >any idiot can use (more or less), it's getting pretty stale. One of the >computer gurus here likes to call "user-friendly" "expert-hostile", and I'd >have to agree. I've gotten beyond the Mac system (which sucks memory like >there's no tomorrow) and want something better. I haven't tried A/UX, since >I can't afford a machine to run it on, but I think A/UX is going to be more >and more standard for the high-end Mac. Something better than the current >system has to be developed for the low-end Mac. > Well, that's my cent worth. Personally, given the money, I'd buy a >DEC VAXStation 3100 M38 SPX rather than a Mac IIfx. It's more powerful, and >it's not user-friendly, but I can do a lot more with it. I guess a lot of the Mac vs. <other computer here> argument comes down to tools and what people do with the systems they own/use. Hell, given the money I'd much rather buy one of my company's S4000 or 5/500 systems rather than a Mac IIfx, but on the other hand that doesn't help my wife who wants to use Quark and Illustrator. She uses my Mac II at home and loves it, as well as the Macs at work. I view my Mac II as a real dog, compared to the two CPU 5/600 sitting next to my desk. Given all this I believe the basic fact is this: people who know their way around computers aren't about to buy Macs to solve their computing needs. However, for people who want a computer to do something in particular and don't want to or don't have time to learn MS-DOS, let alone UNIX, the Mac is a great solution. Apple's commercial about "MIPS, Mhz" vs. "Which computer do people actually USE" isn't that far off the mark for most people who use a Mac... -- | William Kucharski, Solbourne Computer, Inc. | Opinions expressed above | Internet: kucharsk@Solbourne.COM | are MINE alone, not those | uucp: ...!{boulder,sun,uunet}!stan!kucharsk | of Solbourne... | Snail Mail: 1900 Pike Road, Longmont, CO 80501 | "It's Night 9 With D2 Dave!"
nick@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) (03/25/91)
> Given all this I believe the basic fact is this: people who know their way > around computers aren't about to buy Macs to solve their computing needs. Wrong. I know my way around computers (Ph.D.) and still love my Mac. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcsun!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ "I see what you see: Nurse Bibs on a rubber horse."
melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) (03/27/91)
In article <8189@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> nick@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes: > Given all this I believe the basic fact is this: people who know their way > around computers aren't about to buy Macs to solve their computing needs. Wrong. I know my way around computers (Ph.D.) and still love my Mac. There are a professors in my department(CmpSc) that use Macs too. -Mike
jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) (03/28/91)
In article <8189@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> nick@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes: >> Given all this I believe the basic fact is this: people who know their way >> around computers aren't about to buy Macs to solve their computing needs. > >Wrong. > >I know my way around computers (Ph.D.) and still love my Mac. > > >-- >Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. > nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcsun!ukc!lfcs!nick >~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ > "I see what you see: Nurse Bibs on a rubber horse." Ditto. I have a Masters in CS, and I love my Mac. I use windows at work, and find it very shaky with the software we have to use. You have to look for windows software to be sure it'll work, and a lot of times the software you want (or have) to use isn't windows-ready yet. Besides, Windows is not significantly different than the mac in GUI terms, just in details. Someone who scorns the Mac would scorn Windows for the same reasons, I suspect. The main suspicion I have of Next is that there is not much software out there for it. It seems to be a hot machine, and it certainly seems to have the Mac beat for price/performance (in a hrdware sense), but I need to work with my tools, not whatever's available on the Next. Nor do I want to emulate a PC to get some of the software that's on a Mac or PC, but not Next. However, I will grant that Apple pricing is, well, corporately justified, but personally poor-sighted. jas -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu | University of Southern California