Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!karazm.math.uh.edu!jet
From: jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: New Thread: What _REALLY_ makes a product successful?
Message-ID: <1991May14.212327.5562@menudo.uh.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 21:23:27 GMT
References: <72306@microsoft.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@menudo.uh.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Houston -- Department of Mathematics
Lines: 55
Nntp-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu

In article <72306@microsoft.UUCP> tom@microsoft.UUCP (Tom MCCONNELL) writes:
>It is clear that the Amiga when it was introduced was a _far_ superior machine
>than the current IBM and Mac machines available.  I and many of you have
>[...]
>Now the Next has come along with all of it's great hardware and software
>[...]
>And also, there is the whole CDTV vs CDI war.  What's most important....
>[...]
>This is really disapointing to me, as I have spent what seems a lifetime
>looking for _THE BEST_ of whatever it was I was buying.  But the world doesn't
>[...]

I have this theory that explains not only the success of the PC,
but the success of crappy GM cars over quality imports and non-gas
cars:

People are ignorant (not stupid).  They are so wowed by the mere concept
of a *computer* in their *home* that they aren't able to go on
and make value/quality judgements regarding features, etc.  This
is true for buisness as well -- J. Random Businessgeek is so
enthralled by the idea of *automated payroll* that they can't even
beging to envision other uses for the machine: desktop publishing,
in-house video, multiuser systems.

The comment I've heard the most from PC/Mac people on BBS/chat systems
when I mention that I'm running on a multitasking machine: "But
I can only do one thing at once anyway."  They haven't realized that
they *can* do more than one thing at once, or use multitasking
for other things.

I've seen the same thing in academia:  
"I want to buy a workstation." (I just  got a grant, and I have to spend it
on computer equipment.)
"Which one?  What do you want to do with it?" (Great.  Another clueless
git with money burning a hole in their pocket.)
"I dunno, they're all the same, anway, so lets buy from a big company
that's been around for ages." (let's buy an IBM RS/6000, their 
salesdweeb took me to lunch twice last month.)
"Don't you care about features?  Available software?"  (Don't you want
a Sun, or maybe an HP/Apollo, or Data General?)
"But workstations are all the same, right?" (I can't tell the difference,
I'm still amazed by the idea of not having a dumb terminal hooked
to a Sytek server going to an 11/780.  Plus, you can *trust* IBM.)

And then they don't understand why it takes a week to bring up some
freeware product instead of the hour it took on the rest of the
workstations.  Or why I have all this cool software that they can't
use because RS/6000s aren't binary compatible with the rest of the dept.

sigh.

--
J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - bitnet: jet@UHOU - vox: (713) 749-2126
Skate UNIX or bleed, boyo...(UNIX is a trademark of Unix Systems Laboratories).
[As soon as my Amiga 3000 arrives, it'll be Skate Motorola time!]