Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!midway!news From: gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: Re: New Macintosh Strategy Message-ID: <1990Oct30.231000.2343@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 30 Oct 90 23:50:23 GMT Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Distribution: na Organization: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Lines: 115 ------ In article <2eBi026n031i01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>, kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard) writes... [...] >Spinning its wheels????? More like doing faster screen draws, processing >those background tasks a lot faster, and doing some paging. (Paging - >you know what a Mac can't do until that vaporware System 7 shows up.) To be completely accurate, you can get VM _NOW_ (and for the past year or so) with the use of Virtual. [...] >>have been killed if they had abandoned it. Besides, I LOVE my SE30, I >>take it everywhere and 9" is plenty big for me. > ---------------- You must like either sitting > 2" from the screen or squinting. Let me get this straight: this fellow has just told you that he finds his 9" screen fine for his (non-novice) use. And you are telling him that, actually, he doesn't??? [...] > >For engineering type work a Mac plainly sucks. Macs are great if you >never want to see the operating system, or do quick and dirty programming Nonsense. [...] >I have found that programming a Mac is harder than X11 or any other >environment I've been in. I've heard people rate X as more difficult than the Mac. Check out Windows for difficult programming, too. [...] > >A Mac is generic 680x0 hardware. There is nothing special, new, >inovative, spectacular about Mac hardware. The software is what Apple Actually -- again in the interests of accuracy -- this is not true. While the software is mainly what makes an Apple different, there are hardware innovations in Apple's equipment. >is charging you for. The reason Macs are so high is that Apple has >enjoyed artificially high margins because they have had a virtual >monopoly on GUI's and would like to remain that way. Oh, puhleeze! Since when has the Mac had a "monopoly" on GUIs? What is Windows? What is NextStep? What is OpenLook? What is Motif? Apple has had a near-monopoly on a GOOD GUI; others made sucky GUIs up until now. That is NOT Apple's fault. Some companies tried to copy Apple: hence the Windows suit. Some people tried to be original: Next licensed Xerox technology and built their own GUI. > >Macs are not easy to set up once you get into the II line because >you have configuration options, just like all other systems on the market. [...] Nonsense. One of my client's has literally HUNDREDs of Macs, including every model Apple makes. Except for some tricky networking and hooking in with ethernet, it's been basically plug-n-play the whole way. [...] > >There are several companies working on clean room versions of Mac ROMs. >This is the same approach used to clone IBM PC's. I won't go into >details but, IT IS legal to write compatible ROM code and OS as long >as you follow certain guidelines. It certainly is legal and possible to write clean room versions of Mac ROMs (though I wonder how they'll implement Apple-patented code such as regions). But the operative word there is "clean room": they will have to prove that they had NO knowledge of Apple's methods. Tricky. And remember: people are mainly working on 128k ROM clones. And then will come 256k ROMs. But Apple's already up to 512k. Many many years 'til any cloners catch up. And remember: they'll have to clone the OS too: it's illegal for Apple Mac OS software to run on non-Apple machines. How long will it take the cloners to clone System 7? >1. Macs WILL get cheaper or Apple WILL start lose market share to cheaper > and more powerful systems, GUI or NO GUI. > Probably true. Of course Macs ARE getting cheaper, whether you think so or not. >2. Windows and the NeXT WILL NOT go away. They will slowly erode > marketshare until Apple puts its prices in line with the rest > of the industry. May take a while. (Windows is selling very well.) Maybe. Windows will certainly be here for awhile. Next may be. > >3. Mac clones WILL come sooner or later and that WILL definitely piss > Apple off. Apple will lower prices. Peripherals will get cheaper. > -This is what happened in the IBM market. > I don't know about this one. By the time any clone appears on the market, goes thru a protracted court battle with Apple, it will probably be years behind the newest Mac models in functionality (see above). By that time no one may want to buy them. Would you be keen on buying a 64k ROM Mac clone today? Robert ============================================================================ = gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu * generic disclaimer: * "It's more fun to = = * all my opinions are * compute" = = * mine * -Kraftwerk = ============================================================================