Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!bronze!tagreen
From: tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd A. Green)
Subject: Re: Apple won't let me buy a Macintosh LC?!
Message-ID: <1991Mar19.000251.23048@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
References: <7298@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 91 00:02:51 GMT
Lines: 68

In article <7298@idunno.Princeton.EDU> bskendig@dae.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:
> [original edited file follows]
>
>The people at the campus computer center expressed their apologies,
>but they informed methat the two-floppy LC was only for sale to
>departments, and not to individuals or students.  They suggested that
>I sell the hard drive I have now and get the LC with the internal HD.

It always amazed my why Apple wouldn't sell certain products to
individuals.  If you got the $$, then why don't they let you buy it?
Then again I'm a lowly Portuguese major who knows nothing of the
business world.

>And what about poor people like me who already have a hard drive, and
>can't afford to sell it in order to buy something smaller and more
>expensive?

My question to you is: why don't you just buy the one floppy LC?  That
would give you a system with one HD and one FD.  For most people this
is more than sufficient. (Well till you run out of hard drive space :(
).  I have a IIcx with one floppy, and two hard drives...and rarely
have I had the need for a second one.  In fact I cringe everytime I
have to resort to using a floppy.  You get rather spoiled with the
transfer rates of harddrives.  I'd sit back and re-evaluate your need
for a second floppy.  If you're looking to save money, my advice would
be to go with the single floppy system since Apple will not consent to
sell you the dual-floppy system.


>LC with a hard drive or nothing at all, then the choice is simple.  I
>can't afford a machine over $1500; I'll end up waiting to see if the
>Mac clones come out by the end of the year as MacWorld believes they
>will, and if not that, then I'll save up for a NeXTstation.

This one always blows my mind.  I just don't see the comparison
between a Mac and a NeXT for home use.  (and I'm assuming this will be
for home ).  I have a NeXT Cube, that I use as a workstation at work.
I love it and it get's the job done, but I'd never want it at home to
take the place of my Mac.  Don't be lured into the initial cost of the
machine.  The prices for software are in general quite a bit higher
than that of the Mac.  While there is alot of PD in the Unix world, it
is very different than that of the Mac.  I don't want to start a huge
debate on Mac vrs NeXT, but I just see the machines as serving to very
different purposes, and each doing their jobs well.  In any case you
are going to be spending MUCH more than 1,500 for a NeXTstation.  IMO,
you cannot use the smaller drives as workstations.  My Cube has a 384
meg drive and I only have 60 meg free without having much software put
on besides what came with the NeXTStep 2.0 release.  If you're looking
to buy a NeXT plan to shell out $6,000 or (more) so before you have a nice
system.  But my friends tend to tell me that I'm a bit power
hungry....so you might just want to ignore this ;).

>Can anyone from Apple explain why this policy exists?  It seems to me
>this strategy might hurt Apple more than it helps.

I've alwyas loved Apple's machines and hated their marketing.

Todd
==============================================================================
Todd A. Green   "<_CyberWolf_>"  ---> Pascal <- tagreen@ucs.indiana.edu
Unix Systems Administration      ---> Unix <--- tagreen@silver.ucs.indiana.edu 
Macintosh Systems Administration ---> VMS <---- tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu
WCC Office:136.04 phone:855-0949 ---> C <------ tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana 
"Friends don't let friends       ---> Mac <---- tagreen@iubacs.BITNET
 Use DOS" - Scott Ostrander      ---> SunOS <-- tagreen@lykos (FTP only)
==============================================================================