Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!macman
From: macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Dennis H Lippert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Please don't slash your wrists with a cheap knife.
Message-ID: <93194@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 19:19:41 GMT
References: <1e3G7w*o@cs.psu.edu> <1991Feb17.002722.18106@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu>
Reply-To: macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Dennis H Lippert)
Organization: University of Pittsburgh, CIS
Lines: 45

In article <1991Feb17.002722.18106@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu> minich@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) writes:
>
>Well sure, not everyone needs the latest things but I prefer to blow
>MY money (I'm not rich (!!) nor am I a "typical" user... CS major and
>dedicated techno-freak) on the best stuff I can afford. I set a fairly
                                ^^^^^^^^^^
     I'd hope that you'd buy a true-blue IBM over a clone then.

>  More to the point, I would be very careful about recommending minimal
>computers to people who don't have much experience with that particular
>class of system. For a machine with an interface like the Mac, I think
>the Plus/Classic level with 2MB and 40MB hard disk is minimal. VERY
>minimal. If you scrimp in one area (RAM, disk), you only make the other
>parts less useful.
    It depends... with a small word processor (WriteNow), and a FDHD (ie. the
base Classic) you caould do very well.  There'd be room for inits & stuff too.
It's be slow, but it'd be USEABLE.
>
>  With system 7, the Mac will become more complex and the hardware
>requirements will go up as well. The 68000 Macs are dead end machines.
>IF they do what you need now and will work for you in the future (ie,
>you can upgrade them enough or buy another), then that's great, go ahead
>and buy one. [2]  The RAM limitations are starting to pinch a lot of
>people and the lack of a slot (Classic) is always painful when you find
>you need that that little "extra" like a larger monitor. Sys 7 will up
>memory requirements a bit and remember that MultiFinder is no longer
>optional so that 4MB maximum RAM has a large chunk reserved for the
>System and Finder.

Personal thought... is system 6.0.x really several times more useful than,
say, system 3.2?  It uses that much more space.  And, for the record, my
Classics has yet to complain about a 3.2 boot.
>
>[3] The 10 Macs in that lab are still used much more than the 30 PCs
>    with VGA color, xxMB hard disks, and 286's. :-)]

Amen... you oughta see what a lab with 30 pluses can draw... 30 users,
plus a 10 person waiting list. Meanwhile, the 286 monochrome Zeniths (20)
may have 5 users at one time!

Of course there's a room full of PS/2 Model 50's up the block,and Digital
386 clones a bit farther...

Dennis Lippert - macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu
(a consultant who must deal with PC-users and Zeniths at the same time..augh!