Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!uokmax!occrsh!att!cbnewse!macduff From: macduff@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Roger R. Espinosa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Support Apple II's Summary: Mac <> Apple II Message-ID: <2186@cbnewse.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Nov 89 22:52:03 GMT References: <0.apple.info-apple@pro-fishunt> <113300145@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: The Rabbit Corps Lines: 75 In article <113300145@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, saa33413@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > > Start out with the Macintosh. Sure, the high resolution is nice, but where's > the color? You say it's in the Mac II? For the price of a Mac II, you could > buy a fairly nice car. (Or a truck. I saw a Mac IIcx advertised with a list > price of $16000. My father paid less for his Chevy S-10 Blazer--and it's > pretty nice. What gives?) Consider the so-called "workstation monitor" that > I saw in MacUser yesterday. The 21-inch grayscale monitor and interface cost > $3000. Get real! For that price, I could get a IIGS and load it! Some of > the software for the Mac leaves a lot to be desired, too. I've had several > DAs crash the system for me--and then sometimes the system itself crashes! > The "Sorry, a system error occurred" dialog box may or may not work, depending > (so it seems) on the mood the computer is in. I don't need that from a > computer. Finally, the software is ridiculously priced. $750 for MPW? > I paid a paltry $50 for the MicroSPARC Assembler, and Applesoft is built in to > every II. > Yes, you can load a IIGS for $3000, but you *aren't* *getting* *anywhere* *near* the same functionality as a Mac II with a color screen. Hey, let's add more colors ... wait! The RESOLUTION STAYS THE SAME! Jeez. From what I've gathered via the net, NEITHER the IIGS or the Amiga can make that claim. Expensive? Yes. But they're not the same, and can't even be compared. $750 for MPW? Hardly, I'm sorry. Mine came with TML Pascal for $150. Even from APDA it's far less than $750 if all you're going to compare it with is the MicroSPARC Assembler. And me, I love MPW, even though there are cheaper languages avaiable; the UNIX-flavor of MPW is wonderful; *I* love it. Get real. Anything on the high-end of technology costs bucks. ANYTHING. Geez. When the VIC-20 came out it was heralded as being cheap. At $550. My old TI 99/4A cost $200. The disk drive interface (never did buy it) cost >$500. Has anything ever come cheap? > > My IIe has served me well for over four years now. It's gotten me through > high school, and has come with me to college, to go up against the "big boys." > Given a modem, a 3.5" drive, and a few more add-ons, I'm sure the IIe can > "duke it out" against the Mac or (ugh!) any MS-DOS machine to come down the > pike. If I ever get another computer, it will probably be a IIGS. The > competition simply doesn't impress me. My //c served me through college, too. When I decided that I really wanted to program in Pascal and C, though, there weren't too many options open to me. I played with Kyan Pascal for a year, and although I really enjoyed it, trying to use double hires graphics always killed the projects memorywise. I decided I didn't want to redefine the mouse-interface, and bought an SE. Why not a IIGS? Because, geez, everything I kept reading was that it was slow as sin. Because when I went to try a word processor, it kinda grinded to a halt. Because, geez, I'm kinda useless when it came to color, and decided that slow speed + software that was still acheing for a umbrella interface wasn't worth it. And I'm not trying to put the IIGS down, really. Different computers serve different needs. I can't understand why people still hold to the "One Computer For Everything" metaphor. Geez. Louise. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ! Scott Alfter ! Go ! McCoy: ...they don't exactly like you. ! > ! alftersoft@uiuc.edu ! Illini ! Kirk: I know, Bones. The feeling's mutual. ! > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Espinosa rre@ihlpn.ATT.COM Hm. I seem to recall lotsa // programs that died, too, when new models were introduced because of the "HEY! LET'S IGNORE THE APPLE GUIDELINES" philosophy. The Mac has guidelines, too, but people break them, and *that's* the cause of lots of system failures, especially these days when the Mac system is maturing rapidly.