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From: pbiron@weber.ucsd.edu (Paul Biron)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Rumor -> Loss of Mac's 20% advantage over Windows 3.0
Message-ID: <2590@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 90 02:02:54 GMT
References: <40218215MES@MSU> <42382@apple.Apple.COM> <42383@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Jun27.180718.3155@portia.Stanford.EDU> <22943@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
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In article <22943@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> Jim.Matthews@dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) writes:
>In article <1990Jun27.180718.3155@portia.Stanford.EDU>,
>aaron@jessica.stanford.edu (Aaron Wallace) writes:
>> 
>> No one (outside of Apple?!) claims Windows is trying to be a Mac.  
                      ^^^^^
most notibly Apple's lawyers!!!!

>
>Ahem.  I guess you missed the three-page ads Zenith has been running in PC
>mags, trumpeting Windows 3.0 with the line "At last, you can have 
>everything you love about the PC... plus the best of Macintosh".
>
>Our local PC-clone dealer runs Windows ads proclaiming "A Macintosh interface
>at a PC price!".
>
>MicroSoft may not call Windows Mac-like, probably to avoid legal hot water,
>but their OEMs and dealers don't hesitate to hype Windows as a substitute 
>for the Mac interface.  Fans of the original are entitled to point out what
>a poor substitute it is.
>
>--
>Jim Matthews
>Dartmouth Software Development

It seems that only lawyers and advertising people make this claim!
(Well, maybe a few *scared* MACofiles, too ;-|
I haven't heard any user make it (and I think that is what Aaron
was getting at!).

I work, daily, on Macs, PC's and Unix boxes (I'm on an X terminal at
this moment, tho I usually work from a normal vt100) [and from time
to time, on VAXEN running VMS] and as part of my job I do user
consulting and such.  It's true that many people seem to think that
windowing interfaces and Machintosh as synonomous.  However, I think
that is more a product of lawyers and advertising types, than the
"superiority" of Macs.

Granted, MacOS has done a good job of standardizing what it means
to be a windowing interface, but it does *NOT* define it.
That brings up another point (which many MACofiles fail to realize).
There is a big difference between the interface presented by
a computer system and the computer system, itself.

DOS has to be one of the DUMBEST OS's created to date (I've been
known to make the sign of the cross when approaching PC's), but I
would rather have a 286 running DOS than a Mac Plus, simply because
of its increased computing power (and its cheaper, too :-)

("Flames approaching! Sulu, shields up!")

Paul Biron      pbiron@ucsd.edu        (619) 534-5758
Central University Library, Mail Code C-075-R
Social Sciences DataBase Project
University of California, San Diego