Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ncar!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: In defense of the IIgs Message-ID: <8803221951.aa27106@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> Date: 27 Mar 88 20:04:36 GMT Sender: uucp@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 48 X-Unparsable-Date: Tuesday 22 Mar 88 4:35 PM CT >Date: Sat, 19 Mar 88 20:37:25 GMT >Sender: INFO-APP Info-Apple List >From: Lazlo Nibble >Subject: IIgs Too Wimpy, Seeking Greener Pastures >Most of the // people I know (four or five of us) are looking >into trashing the //s and gettting Amigas. When I got my //e looong ago >(five years now! Geez!) it was becuase it was the most hack-able machine >out there, and you could do the most fun stuff on it. Unfortunately Apple >has decided not to keep going in that direction. What would you like Apple to do to make the GS more fun and hackable? If you ask me, it is very fun and very hackable. There are more vectors to intercept than most people ever dreamed of. The faithful monitor is still there, with useful new features (pattern search, making any toolbox call...). There is a large LINEAR address space with a real memory manager--so you can write all the utilities you want and not worry about memory conflicts. There are desk accessories available at any time. (Let me know if you're interested in a real GS hacker's CDA I wrote [I don't think it's been posted to APPLE2-L yet...I suppose I should work on that].) >I didn't bother to upgrade to a IIgs because >the wimpy increase in processor speed didn't make it worthwhile Processor speed is NOT the most important thing, and it's not the GS's strongest feature. What about desk accessories, built-in clock & parameter RAM, built-in printer and modem ports, built-in 80-col card, built-in mouse port, built-in SmartPort interface, and a large [and hackable] toolbox? >when you can >get a 12MHz PC clone system (complete with 40M hard drive) or a rockin' little >Amiga 500 system, both for under $1500, what the hell's the point of spending >around $1000 for a new motherboard, monitor, and mouse? Be CAREFUL throwing "MHz"'s around--there are major differences in the number of clock cycles taken for each instruction cycle between different processors. There isn't all that much difference in processor speed between a 2.8MHz 65816 and a 12MHz 80?86. I won't try to defend Apple's prices. >Lazlo Nibble (cs2531bn@charon.unm.edu) --David A. Lyons a.k.a. DAL Systems PO Box 287 | North Liberty, IA 52317 BITNET: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS CompuServe: 72177,3233 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2