Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: How do we change the scheduler? (Was Re: Multitasking at ho Message-ID: <42516@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 14 Jan 91 22:41:58 GMT References: <17210@cbmvax.commodore. <7504@sugar.hackercorp.com> <42459@ut-emx.uucp> <37975@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin Lines: 79 In article <37975@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) in <42459@ut-emx.uucp> > >writes (regarding the Mac): > > I can start up a _bunch_ of apps on a 2 meg Mac (I just have to be > selective about what I launch). > >Not a very user-friendly system if your apps are load-order dependent. They aren't load-order dependent. Unfortunately, Mac developers (at least the ones doing major apps) are pretty sloppy about code size and applications can't request more memory (this is a simplification) from the OS, so they take up fixed amounts of space in MultiFinder partitions. For example, on a 2 meg Mac, the OS takes up about 250k, the Finder takes up 160k, Word wants 512, and Excel wants a meg. (These are all the current versions. I can do a lot better with older versions and still have lots of functionality.) >Oh? I'll tell you what really shows the Mac to be the rotten Apple that it is. >My secretary uses a Mac II (for doing all kind of documentation type stuff) and >was printing out a bunch of stuff on the Apple Laser printer that was to be our >handout material at last month's DECUS in Las Vegas, when I happened to be in >her office and asked "Hey, Jude, flip over to the terminal window and I want to >show you something on the VAX." She said, "I can't, I'm printing and cannot do >anything else for at least 45 minutes." I'm sorry your secretary doesn't have access to reasonable Mac support. I have a bunch of people on my network doing that sort of thing and they might have to wait 30 seconds or so for something to spool to disk so that it can be printed in the background. >Apple has the audacity and arrogance to claim the Mac makes people productive? > >BULLSHIT! Thanks, but it makes people who otherwise wouldn't be very productive with an IBM very much so with a Mac. I've been using Macs and helping Mac users since 1984. It is a pretty useful machine. Unfortunately, the same interface that helps those users also makes it difficult to maxmize the machine's potential. >suckered into paying so much for the Mac and its software, I was tempted to >grab that CRApple Mac and toss it out the window and over the fence and teach >her how to use AmigaTeX on one of the spare office Amigas (which, by the way, >prints just nicely onto the same Apple Laser printer). Like I said, just because you don't know how to use the machine doesn't mean it can't do the job. Who suckered you into buying the Mac? Any computer user that buys a machine without giving it a workout on the kinds of tasks that they expect of that machine deserves what they get. >And as for Allen's comment "but it just as easy to format a bunch at once and >then go back to work." Again, bullshit. I was just doing some file transfers >and noted, "Oh oh, HD is just about full" so I just flipped to a CLI window on >the Amiga, formatted a few floppies WHILE THE FILE TRANSFER WAS STILL GOING ON, >and then had disks upon which to write the transfer buffs with NO LOSS OF TIME >on my part (re: formatting a buncha disks beforehand). Well gee, funny how things work, but human beings can multitask too! I generally can pop a disk in and format it while doing some other non computer- related task. If your working habits are such that you need to format a disk on the fly, the Amiga is your machine. [comments on the inadequacy of Apple developer info deleted] >Thad > >P.S. And before you start to reply, remember this IS comp.sys.amiga.ADVOCACY >where one is expected to flame/be-flamed, and to tout the obvious superiority >of the Amiga over everything else. As someone else recently stated, there >oughta be a Federal law requiring everyone to buy/own an Amiga! :-) Well, I think there is a difference between a flame and just a bunch whining. If the Amiga is the superior machine, it will win without a bunch of uninformed dopes bad-mouthing a machine they don't know very much about. I'm very interested in what the Amiga CAN do and not very much interested in what some people THINK the Mac can't.