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From: merchant@dartvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple/ the look and feel of toys
Message-ID: <5661@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Feb-87 13:31:11 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.5661
Posted: Sun Feb  8 13:31:11 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Feb-87 04:15:40 EST
References: <677@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 42
Summary: The "Look" of a Macintosh
Xref: watmath comp.sys.ibm.pc:1514 comp.sys.mac:1218

In article <677@imsvax.UUCP>, ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:

>
>  When Joe  Businessman in  New York  City plunks down $3000 of his
>  hard-earned cash  for a  small computer,  he doesn't  want to see
>  plastic, 5"  screens, toy  keyboards, cutsie logos, machines with
>  one floppy drive, or  EXTERNAL  floppy  drives  or  anything like
>  that.   My first  reaction to the Lisa was disbelief;  I couldn't
>  believe anyone would even try to sell anything  which LOOKED like
>  that in  America.   Maybe in Borneo or the Australian outback....
>  The Mac, unfortunately, doesn't  qualify  as  evidence  that they
>  learned anything from the Lisa.
>  Ted Holden,

...after all, Joe Businessman wants a computer on his desk that LOOKS like a
computer.  You know, solid steel, EXTERNAL monitors, takes up lots of room on
a desk.  You know, a computer that says "Hi, I'm a big important machine for
a big important man."  Obviously, Joe's computer is mostly for looks, anyway.

Okay, the screen is small.  I don't see too much problem with the keyboard.
I put it next to an IBM keyboard and it was the same size.  In fact, when I
looked at the Mac keyboard, it seemed tiny until I realised that it was a
normal size...it just didn't have all the function keys, external keypads,
cursor controls, num locks, scroll locks, etc.  My only gripe with the Mac
keyboard is that I occasionally miss the apostrophe and hit the return.  I
think that might have been corrected on the new keyboards anyway...

The PC-XT has one floppy drive.  If you have a hard disk, why do you need
two or three floppy drives.  If Joe Businessman is being halfway serious,
anyway, he has a hard drive.

As for cute logos, well, yes, a machine that greets me with "Welcome to
Macintosh" might turn off a serious computer user, but most people could really
care less.  Again, those people who are so concerned with how their computers
look and act are probably the people who are more interested in their image.
Me?  I use my computer to get work done.  Whether it looks like a toaster
or not, it does lots of things that the IBM PC people around here would kill to
be able to do.  That does more for my image than having a large hulking machine
sitting on my desk looking important.
--
"Nyah."                                           Peter Merchant
                                                  merchant@dartvax.UUCP