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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ux1.lbl.gov!nolra
From: nolra@ux1.lbl.gov (Arlon Hunt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.misc
Subject: PC vs. Mac:  Which One?
Message-ID: <4341@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
X-Local-Date: 30 Nov 89 16:09:38 PST
Date: 1 Dec 89 00:09:38 GMT
Sender: usenet@helios.ee.lbl.gov
Reply-To: nolra@ux1.lbl.gov (Arlon Hunt)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Lines: 31

After all these years of relying on VAX mainframes for all of my computer
needs, my wife and I are finally considering the purchase of a home
computer for purposes which I'll outline below (I know, I know, we're
behind the times, OK?).  However, the question is, should we go for a
PC-based system, or a Mac?

PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR SUGGESTIONS TO ME (after reading our requirements below)
RATHER THAN POSTING TO THIS NEWSGROUP.  I DON'T WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
STARTING A PC vs. MAC WAR.

Our requirements:

     a)  Business use.  My wife is a programming contractor (she's leaning
         towards a PC-based system since she may use the computer as a
         terminal to remotely login to IBM mainframe computers), and we also
         have a couple of other businesses on the side requiring record
         keeping.  I may form a company to make three-dimensional topographic
         maps using computerized data, driving a precision plotter.  Thus,
         I'll need to do a lot of floating point number-crunching.

     b)  Games.  We enjoy high quality games, and have two boys who also
         enjoy computer games (they already have a Nintendo).  We definitely
         want a high resolution color-graphics capability.

     c)  Word processing and desk-top publishing.  We would like to produce
         high quality publications for our business ideas, incorporating
         graphs and images into the publications.

I'd also like comments regarding upgradability, cost, options, etc.  (I've
got a hunch that Mac's aren't quite as flexible in these regards since there
are no Mac-clones (true?) )


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