Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ntvaxb!ac08
From: ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (C. Irby))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Rumor -> Loss of Mac's 20% advantage over Windows 3.0
Message-ID: <28411.268ab266@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 90 01:44:06 GMT
References: <40218215MES@MSU> <42382@apple.Apple.COM> <42383@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Jun27.180718.3155@portia.Stanford.EDU> <22943@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <2590@network.ucsd.edu>
Lines: 105

In article <2590@network.ucsd.edu>, pbiron@weber.ucsd.edu (Paul Biron) writes:


About Windows copying Macs...

> 
> It seems that only lawyers and advertising people make this claim!

Not really... it's painfully obvious to most people.

> (Well, maybe a few *scared* MACofiles, too ;-|    

I see the smiley, but "scared?"  Not anyone who's actually *seen* Win 3.0...
It's not bad, but when you have to buy a fast 286 to get the performance
of a Mac PlusA, you know you're hurting...

> I haven't heard any user make it (and I think that is what Aaron
> was getting at!).
> 

I've heard a lot of MS-DOS users make the claim that it's a "Mac Killer,"
and it's not.


> 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.
> 

But until the Mac came along, nobody really used GUI.  Sure, Xerox did
the early development, but if someone tells you that the Mac isn't
a *huge* step up from previous machines, they're lying.

> 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.
> 

That's right.  Like the commands that work in almost all Mac programs
in pretty much the same way.  Try this simple experiment on an MS-DOS
machine:

	Open a document in a word processor.  Select a section of text.
	Change the font.
	Open the same document in another word processor.  Select the
	same section.  Change the font.
	Did you use the same commands?
	No?
	*That* is why the Mac is superior.
	(Note that the word procesors that break this rule are lousy
	 ones imported from the MS-DOS world...)

> 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 :-)
> 

"Increased computing power?"  Get a life.  If you manage to buy an
MS-DOS machine for less than an equivalent Mac, you're going to lose
one or more of the following:

	1) Speed (due to kludges in memory that end up forcing the
	   CPU to live with multiple wait states.  This is very
	   common in the MS-DOS clone world, and none of the folks
	   who buy these clunkers seem to have the IQ to figure out
	   that they got ripped... in any other industry, this is
	   called "false advertising."  Many "25 MHz 286 machines"
	   really run like XTs... except in benchmarks.  They can
	   cheat on those...)

	2) Compatibility.  Many clones are pretty compatible, but the 
	   ceiling is about 90-95% (average about 85%).
	   That means that some programs *will not run* on that
	   "powerful" machine... (read "boat anchor.")

	3) Quality.  A cheap machine is OK until it dies, and you realize
	   that you might as well get a new one (after a year or so), or
	   spend half its value geting it fixed (if you can find someone
	   who *can* fix it).

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

BTW- the preceding was not a flame.  It wasn't important enough to deserve a
real flame.  Just because you work with Macs doesn't mean you know anything
about them...

> 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
-- 
                       \
C Irby                  \   "The following will be a test of the 
ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu    \   Emergency .Signature System.
ac08@untvax               \  This is only a test.
                           \ Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep."
                            \