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From: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: System 7.0 - Remember when...
Message-ID: <26183@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 10 Jul 89 22:29:03 GMT
References: <1132@umiami.miami.edu>
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Reply-To: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <1132@umiami.miami.edu> GTWW2Z9Z@umiami.miami.edu (Jason Gross) writes:
>Remember how we laughed at IBM for making their uses need at least 2 MB to
>run OS/2 and how complicated their software was?  
 
I believe that OS/2 will require *four* megabytes to run reasonably or
at all...

>Does anyone REALLY like having to go out and buy more memory just to run
>an operating system (I agree its a great OS, but now I hafta sink $200
>just to use it!)?  Does anyone really like knowing that their machines
>can't make full use of all the functions of an operating system?
 
At least one industry analyst has forecast that 1-meg SIMMs will have
dropped in price to about $75 by next summer.  That may be around the
time System 7.0 is finally released.  Considering you pay almost $400
for a piece of software like PageMaker, $150 for the functionality of
System 7.0 seems a small price...

>"The machine for the rest of us" has now become "The machine for those lucky
>enough to have the memory and 68030 CPU or a 68020 with a PMMU."
 
System 7.0 will be runnable on any Mac with 2 megs.  The only thing you
lose by not having an 030 or 020-PMMU combo is virtual memory.  While
VM is a nice thing, it's certainly not the best thing about System 7.0;
perhaps it's among the top ten things.  You may be able to get a
7.0-compliant expansion board for not a whole lotta bucks by next summer
if VM is that important to you.  Again, doing so is like getting another
computer, which you'd have to pay for anyway.

>P.S. I still love my Mac and would never let an IBM replace it.  Maybe a
>NeXT, but not an IBM :^).  It's just ironic to see someof those things we've
>always hated in an IBM come to us now.

I sorta like the NeXT box, but it requires eight megs to run its
OS (which is more powerful in many ways than the Mac's 7.0 will be).
Maybe I'll wait for System 8.0 :-).

John Heckendorn
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