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From: jcav@ellis.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga vs. Mac
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.013927.26548@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 91 01:39:27 GMT
References: <1131@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <4232.27de369d@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> <1991Mar13.223831.870@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Sender: jcav@midway.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino)
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 40

In article <1991Mar13.223831.870@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:
>In fact, I get very annoyed whenever I use the Mac, because I naturally
>like to do powerful things in shells, like  find | grep | sed | cat.
>Regardless of what people think, a totally 100% iconic interface gets in
>the way.

You are a power-user.  Most people are not.  Nor do they wish to be.

Apple sells a powerful command-line environment called MPW which does all
that find | grep | sed | cat stuff.  I use it all the time when I'm programming.
It's targeted at power-user/techie types who want/need/are interested in
that kind of terse power.

The main group of people to whom Apple markets the Macintosh are intelligent
people who have things they want to do and who would be helped to do these
things better if they had a computer that didn't force them to learn so
many computer-specific concepts about which they could care less.

Notice the key word "force".  Nothing about the Mac prevents you from learning
and using power-user tricks, command lines, etc.  The advantage is that absent
all of that you can still get incredible amounts of useful stuff
accomplished.

The Amiga is a wonderful machine.  Its operating system is a work of art.
Its expansion bus architecture is the fastest of any personal computer.  Etc.

Ms. non-techie-but-expert-in-her-own-non-computer-related-field doesn't CARE
about any of that. She just wants to get her work done in the areas that are
important to her, rather than to the computer.  These concerns matter, and
addressing them is what Apple has chosen to emphasize.
To Apple, the human-interface is really the most important part of a computer
system.  If you keep this fact in mind, it makes most of what the company does
a lot more understandable.


-- 
John Cavallino                      |     EMail: jcav@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago Hospitals     |    USMail: 5841 S. Maryland Ave, Box 145
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"Opinions, my boy. Just opinions"   | Telephone: 312-702-6900