Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!ucbvax!ALTAR.EE.BYU.EDU!jlol
From: jlol@ALTAR.EE.BYU.EDU (Jay Lawlor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: reason to buy Apollos
Message-ID: <9007101444.AA24693@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 10 Jul 90 14:45:15 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jlol@altar.ee.byu.edu
Lines: 40


	In article <9007070357.AA00259@zeus.WRI.com> leland@wri.UUCP writes:
	>

	>The question of "Why would anyone buy an Apollo" is like asking "Why would
	>anyone buy a Ford?" -- the answer is that people buy whatever they feel most
	>confortable *using*. They buy the system that has an editor and debugger they
	>are comfortable with and THAT -- not price, technology, or what have you --
	>seems to make the difference.

	I agree with you entirely, and three years or so ago, there was enough
	difference between machines to make level-of-comfort a big part of the
	decision as to which machine to buy.  But these days, as I said in my
	last posting, anything you can do on an Apollo, you can also do on a
	Sun, for less money.  There may be some additional amount of hassle, but
	not much. 

Yes, you can do it cheaper, as well as SLOWER on a Sun.  Have you ever
tried using a decent text editor on a sun (including sun4) color
display?  You might as well wait all day for it to scroll.  On Apollos
and HPs I have used, the display is very fast even for low end machines.

		 I think that the important issues today are: price, performance,
	and standards.  

I'll admit, Sun wins on the standards.  Most software ports to the Sun
with almost no grief.  I hate porting things to my HP (but I love the
50 MHz clock :-).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Lawlor                            |
Systems Manager, Supercomputer Center | I think there is a world market for
459 Clyde Building                    | about five computers -- Thomas J.
Brigham Young University              | Watson, CEO, IBM Corporation, 1947
Provo, UT 84602                       |
jlol@ee.byu.edu                       |
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Opinions are, of course, my own.  The fact that everyone else shares
them is not my concern.