Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!davewt
From: davewt@NCoast.ORG (David Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga vs. Mac
Message-ID: <1991Mar19.031537.17575@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 19 Mar 91 03:15:37 GMT
References: <4232.27de369d@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> <1991Mar13.223831.870@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Mar14.013927.26548@midway.uchicago.edu>
Organization: North Coast Public Access Un*x (ncoast)
Lines: 36

In article <1991Mar14.013927.26548@midway.uchicago.edu> jcav@ellis.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino) writes:
>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.
	Except that many things are just not possible. On the Mac, CLI
oriented utilities are in a worse state than Amiga WorkBench supporting
software was when the Amiga first came out, since keyboard operated programs
are not what the mac is aimed at.
>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.
	I agree. But that does not make a Mac any easier to use, or more
friendly than an Amiga. In fact, the only "good" thing about the Mac OS is
that from the beginning "most" Mac programs tended to work the same and look
the same. At the time that was very unusual. When the Amiga first came out,
people seemed to feel they had to create their own gadget imagery, their own
way of doing things, and so early aps didn't look as good as similar Mac aps.
But over the past few years I have noticed that most programs on the Amiga
look and work the same, just as you would expect. And with AmigaDOS 2.0,
they look and work even better, without having to change any programs at all.
Think of how hard it would be to update the Mac OS in a compatible way.
	I would be willing to bet Apple will NEVER change the OS again in the
way they did to add the window shrink gadget, as every program would have to
be recompiled to work with it, or at least support it.
	There are other nice things about the Mac OS, like the growing bar
when you are copying files to indicate how much you have copied, but these
are more "feeping creaturisms" than true features, and while pretty do not
actually make it any "easier" to use the system.


				Dave