Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Revolution in '84 (was Re: NeXT not revolutionary enough?)
Message-ID: <2204@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 11 Nov 88 20:51:57 GMT
References: <471@wucs1.wustl.edu> <4391@ubc-cs.UUCP> <485@wucs1.wustl.edu> <26750@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: SCADA
Lines: 26


[ Macintosh was a revolution in personal computers ]

I won't argue with that. The Mac was, for all its faults, a revolutionary
machine: a Star-type user interface that cost less than a small car.  Too
bad they didn't see fit to put a conventional operating system in there
(no, I don't mean "like MS-DOS", I mean "like UNIX"... as in a similar
design... OS/9, for example).

It has other faults... but the biggest problem is that everything in the
machine has become a slave to the user interface. Multitasking on a
window basis just isn't efficient... look at the hardware it requires.
The user learning-curve is pretty easy to conquer... but for programmers
it's horrendous.

The next revolution in *personal* computers was 1986, with the Amiga. Star-
type user interface, but a real operating system, and color... and a
significantly lower cost as well. This one is still being fought, thanks
to a sterling example of malice and greed on the part of an ex-CEO that
nearly crippled Commodore beyond recovery.

And Apple is working against this one.
-- 
Peter da Silva  `-_-'  Ferranti International Controls Corporation
"Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?"     uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter
Disclaimer: My typos are my own damn business.   peter@ficc.uu.net