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From: ogawa@orion.arc.nasa.gov (Arthur Ogawa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Open Letter to an MS-DOS User
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.075611.26873@news.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 29 Mar 91 07:56:11 GMT
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In article <1991Mar27.200613.4423@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> dave@elxr.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
|derosa@motcid.UUCP (John DeRosa) writes:
|>I finally did the right thing and bought a different computer.
|If you were having these kinds of troubles, it's good that you bought
|a different machine! These machines are not for the computer incompetant.
|(Who else would type rm *.* on a DOS machine?)

Hey, I've used both. And I've seen some very competent people on DOS
machines really do rm *.*. I also saw somebody do rm -r * on a Unix
machine (really!).  These things happen. It's just that only arrogant
guys like me and you ;-) take others to task for making such errors.

|>Can you guess the name of my computer system?  
|
|Gee..I could if you tell me how much slower it runs, how much
|more you have to pay for disk storage, and how difficult it is
|to get things like a MIDI port and/or modems installed for it.

Look, I hate to imply that you're clueless, Dave, but anybody who
follows prices of Mac, DOS, Unix systems nowadays knows that Mac third
party stuff is at a par with DOS, sometimes significantly better
prices. Also my friends who run in a mixed Mac/DOS shop report that
the Macs are much faster than comparable DOS machines. Their
perceptions are their own, I know, but not out of line with
comparisons I've seen in the trade mags.

I have a buddy who bought an IBM PS/2 model 70 awhile back.  Ran it
for the longest time in base configuration. Then he was really
chagrined when he found out how much he had to lay out for a (bigger)
hard disk, because it had to be compatible with IBM's MCA controller.
Also, he's still messing around with applications written with
PharLap's extender and something like 2Mb of (real) memory.

Meanwhile, I just got a price on a Fujitsu 15ms X 4.8Mb/s, 1.2Gb drive: 
$2800. And thanks to my PMMU and a $100 piece of software, I'm 
running with 14Mb of virtual memory. Sorry, guys, but I no longer
consider the DOS-type computer to be the platform of choice for this
power user. Oh, yes, Ethernet card (10Base T) for $200.

Also, my accountant drives around with a 150Mb SCSI drive and just 
plugs in the Macs here in the office. She's no hacker and yet has no
trouble. You can't do that with your standard AT/EISA box: where
you going to plug it in? The Centronics port?

Oh, look. This thing is cross-posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc. No
wonder so many DOS respondents to this thread. Alright, then, please
fellow flamers, accept this challenge: state how much experience/money
you've spent on DOS/Mac systems when you post. Let those who have
their feet in both camps relate their experiences, and let the bigots
confess themselves for what they are: uninformed.

Arthur Ogawa        Internet: ogawa@orion.arc.nasa.gov  Ph: 1/415/691-1126
TeX consultant      AppleLink: ogawa                    FAX:1/415/962-1969