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From: kim@analog.UUCP (Kim Helliwell          )
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: JEP vs MAC
Message-ID: <131@analog.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-May-84 16:00:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: analog.131
Posted: Fri May 25 16:00:37 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 05:00:01 EDT
Organization: Analog Design Tools, Menlo Park, Ca.
Lines: 44

After reading the recent postings of INFO MAC traffic (for which I thank
the poster) I can't help but respond to the tantrums of Jerry Pournelle
regarding the Mac. (perhaps at the risk of repeating some things already
said.)

Jerry appears to me to have evaluated so many pieces of hardware and
software and looked so much at the flaws and problems of everything
that comes into his hands, that he is losing the objectivity to see the
good points.  He is definitely at his best when he is fighting the
Good Fight against venal software vendors for shoddy documentation, poor
support, intimidating license agreements, and vile copy protection schemes,
and I cheer him for those efforts.  But it is possible that he has become
so negative about the efforts of the industry (or, perhaps, certain
players therein) that he is unwilling to see the good in anything as 
well hyped (and, admittedly, over-hyped) as the Macintosh.

I seem to remember that when the IBM PC first came out (and it was
pretty well hyped, too, if I recall correctly), it didn't have very
much in the way of either software or peripherals available for it, and
IBM was quoted as saying that certain very desirable peripherals, for
example, would be supplied by independent manufacturers.  Ditto for
much of the desirable software.  And lo, now 2 years later, that has
all come to pass, perhaps with a vengeance.  So it isn't very
surprising that Apple would do the same sort of thing with the Mac.
This sort of thing is common in the entire computer industry (e.g.
witness the history of DEC's VAX), and is nothing to get alarmed about,
in my opinion, UNLESS the Mac totally bombs commercially.

I think it is significant that Jerry acquired a Mac in the first three
months of its existence, but he waited until the PC was about 1.5 years
old and had LOTS of hardware add-ons, support, and software available
before he bought one and reviewed it.  Fairness would dictate that he
at least wait a year before seriously reviewing the Mac.  Let's compare
apples with apples (or with IBM's, on an equal footing).

I really enjoy Jerry's BYTE columns, and read them even when I read
nothing else in BYTE.  I expect to continue to enjoy them, but I will
take what he says with a grain of salt.  I will be interested in what
he has to say about the Mac in his column, as opposed to what he said
in this forum.  The question of the hour is, "will he tone it down, any?"


Kim Helliwell
hplabs!analog!kim