Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!munnari!gwydir!ccadfa!anucsd!fac3!csc!cjs900 From: cjs900@csc.anu.oz Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Praising the Mac Message-ID: <41@csc.anu.oz> Date: 3 May 88 17:08:00 GMT References: Organization: Australian National University Lines: 57 In article , tm2f+@andrew.cmu.edu (Terence David Murphy) writes: > state now that I own a Mac SE with internal 20 meg HD (from Apple). I also > have a roommate with a Mac II, AppleColor monitor, 2 megs of memory, and > Apple's 40 meg HD. I am a freshman at CMU, and I work on IBMs for my father > and for a small business as a data entry clerk. Well it seems that from the outset your views are going to be biased, with you, your roomie, family, friends etc etc all being rabid Macaholics. > In response to the recent questions from Amiga users that the large screens > available, and easily useable, for the Mac are too costly and do not constitute > an advantage of the Mac over other computers. This is the most frequent complaint I hear about the Mac. It's screen is a toy, hence the 'Macintoy' term coined by whoever. The full sized screens for the Mac II are very nice, but also, like the Mac II itself, outrageously expensive. I would like to mention a program called Stepping Out II. This > program, available for around $60, emulates a large screen on the Mac Plus, SE, > and II (I don't know about 512k machines, but it should probably work also) by > setting off a portion of memory (for a 1024x990 black and white resolution, it > takes up 192K) and making a virtual screen. It then transfers a 512x342 (or > various Mac II resolutions) window of this virtual screen to the actual screen > for viewing. Thus, what you see is like holding a piece of cardboard with an > appropriately sized hole cut in it over one of these big screens and moving it > around to see everything. This may seem silly -- You said it! :-) > Having looked at a number of computers with color, I've only found one > computer that has the resolution and quality of color that I think I might be > able to sit in front of that screen for 10 hours straight and not develop > severe eye strain (I do this on a semi-regular basis on my Mac SE, and the > screen never bugs me at all). I personally find the text on Amigas and Atari > STs to be unsatisfactory for this kind of work, Well I think this may be down to an individual's eyesight, and what they are sensitive to. I have never stared at my Amiga's screen for text processing for more than 4 hours tops, I would think that 10 hours continuous *any* personal computer would be enough to make anyone's eyes feel tired, regardless of resolution! A friend of mine using Draw on a Mac II for long periods of time while designing PCB's complained of headaches. Different strokes for different folks. The same can be said about Personal Computers. The Mac is a nice piece of Hardware, and I use one at work lots. (Admittedly, mainly due to Laser printing facilities...) The Mac II is even nicer albeit ridiculously pricey, but because of what it all boils down to, what an individual wants from a Personal Computer, my loyalty remains with Amiga. Have a nice day. Chris Stanek. Australian National University.