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From: Mark_E._Simmons.osbunorth@XEROX.COM.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re:  Apple IIe vs Apple II+ (and now Mac)
Message-ID: <870326-131036-1193@Xerox>
Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 14:11:14 EST
Article-I.D.: Xerox.870326-131036-1193
Posted: Thu Mar 26 14:11:14 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Mar-87 06:21:16 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 36

Point of clarification on the following message sent by Bruce Halpern.

"However, business is now said to be moving heavily into Macs,
especially Mac+ and the new Mac SE."

The Macintosh has made most of its inroads into the business community
via desktop pubishing applications.  The new Mac SE may?? make some
inroads into some engineering applications.  The IBM family of PCs and
clones continues to be King of the mainstream business community.  In
fact, several computer industry forecasters (like Infocorp and The
Gartner Group) are predicting IBMXT and AT class equipment will take
away most of Apple's market share of the desktop publishing market in
about 3 years time.

Another important consideration in the Macintosh's favor is the user
interface.  This is definitely a trend for future systems.  (Note
MicroSoft's Windows and Digital Research's GEM.)  There is certainly
something to be said for the educational value of learning to use a
computer on tomorrow's user interface.

Anyone who has looked at the software available 3-4 years ago compared
to today understands the diminished value of learning the detailed
operation any specific program, and learning the programming languages
themselves is best left up to the programmers, not your typical business
user.

My basic tenet for computer education is:  Its not so important which
machine, or which application you learn on as it is to learn what they
can do for you and gain a basic understanding of how to use a computer.

Either the Apple II+, Apple IIE, Mac, or IBMPC (and clones) are
appropriate for education.  What counts is the curriculum (including
appropriate software to support it, which all these systems generally
have).

--Mark