Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!kitchel From: kitchel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Sid Kitchel) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun's Competitive Strategy (Was: Re: P1754 Message-ID: <76095@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Date: 4 Dec 90 14:53:07 GMT References: <1990Nov16.225515.494@zoo.toronto.edu> <1990Nov25.194404.3376@dircon.uucp> <1635@unix386.Convergent.COM> <1990Dec2.014554.3491@Neon.Stanford.EDU> <2760@cirrusl.UUCP> <2764@cirrusl.UUCP> Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington Lines: 43 dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes: |In <2760@cirrusl.UUCP> I wrote: |||The new Classic costs $750 at the Stanford |||Bookstore, and the waiting list for them is 2 months long. ||Nope. "Classic" here means "obsolete". In this day and age of 28-MIPS ||machines, what Apple does with an 8 MHz 68000 is utterly irrelevant. |A number of people have protested in email and in follow-up postings. |Some of them implicitly assumed that any discussion of MIPS must be |about a Sun running UNIX. This is not so. |The state-of-the-art today in single-user machines is anywhere from 10 |to 30 MIPS depending upon your budget. People buying 80x86-based |systems are mostly buying machines running 80286 and 80386 CPUs at 16 |MHz or higher. The Apple Classic *does not* cost $750 in any usable |configuration. (And educational discounts only benefit a small |minority of users.) Add a decent amount of mass storage and other |peripherals and you can easily pay $2,000 or more. There's just no |comparison with equivalent 80386SX-based systems. I'm typing this reply on my 80386-SX Austin at work. (I've been told that "SX" stands for "sucks", but I cannot confirm this.) For a turkey, this is a nice, cute little machine. But I must agree with you completely in your: "There's just no comparison..." You are absolutely correct. For productivity, getting it just the way I want it, for crisp graphics, desktop publishing, fonts I can read all day, etc. etc. I much prefer my Mac at home. It has better displays than any Super VGA I've ever seen. The software available for the Mac blows away anything I have at work. I sure am glad that I don't have to hold my breath waiting for the OS/2, Windows 3.XX vs. DOS 6 war to end with a clear winner!! And as a computer architect, I cringe every time I think of the design of the 80x86 machines. Give me a break and give me a 68xxx machine with a reasonable user interface NOW!! --Sid -- Sid Kitchel...............WARNING: allergic to smileys and hearts.... Computer Science Dept. kitchel@cs.indiana.edu Indiana University kitchel@iubacs.BITNET Bloomington, Indiana 47405-4101........................(812)855-9226 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com