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From: philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: The New Macs: Greedy Compromises?
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.215204.25428@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 29 Nov 90 21:52:04 GMT
References: <1990Nov29.005944.17800@scrumpy@.bnr.ca> <_M{^JJ&@rpi.edu> <1990Nov29.185737.17454@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
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In article <1990Nov29.185737.17454@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>, treeves@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Terry N Reeves) writes:
> you cannot answer all question about why company a did b by saying they did it
> to make money. It's true, of course. It's also stupid.  It's like answering 
> "why did the chicken cross the road" with "to get to the other side"
> 
> it is possible to get more detailed answers and it is possible to derive benfit
> from those answers
Yes, right. One of the drawbacks of this "It makes money therefore it's good"
logic is it is too short-term. Here's a little homework exercise. Fill in
the following table:

model      128K 512K 512Ke Plus SE SE/30 II IIx IIcx IIci IIsi Classic Portable
slot type (check all that apply)
  none
  PDS
  PDS/20
  PDS/30
  PDS/40
  NuBus
RAM installation (check all that apply)
  soldered
  SIMM
  card
CPU
  68000
  68020
  68030
Clock speed
  8MHz
  16MHz
  20MHz
  25MHz
  40MHz
PMMU
  extra
  in CPU
  none
Cache
  extra
  built in
  none
DMA (y/n)
Floating point unit
  68881
  68882
  optional
  none
Power Supply
  90-250V
  fixed voltage
  battery
QuickDraw
  color
  original

I will be interested if you can see any pattern in this (no, please _do not_
send me the completed table). The point I am making is Apple lacks a clear
sense of direction. This must be very disturbing for third-party hardware
manufacturers, who have to decide which of 6 methods of adding hardware to
support. And surely this unnecessary proliferation of variations hurts Apple's
ability to bring products quickly to market, and to further develop them.
(Including system software.)
-- 
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu