Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!jarthur!wilkins
From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: My disillusioned self.
Message-ID: <235@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 17 Feb 89 11:57:17 GMT
Reply-To: wilkins@jarthur.UUCP (Mark Wilkins)
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Lines: 37


     I will try to keep this short.  I have been a Macintosh addict for a
long time, I like many of the products available, and I see the Macintosh as a
major improvement on any previous general-user PC.
     Which is why it causes me frustration that Macintosh technology is
basically stagnant.  "Wait," you ask.  "Didn't Apple introduce faster, more
powerful machines, with color and slots and coprocessors and (soon, I hear)
virtual memory and multitasking?  Isn't that a long way from the Mac 128k?"
     Yes.  Those additions are a long way from the Mac 128k.  But these
technologies have been around for a long time.  What I am talking about is
this:

    1) The Mac user interface, albeit a good user interface, has not changed
substantially in five years.  It is not the user interface of the future
anymore.

    2) Macintosh could be twice as fast.  The processors now implemented in
ALL Apple systems spend at least two cycles on every RAM access.  Apple
chose to use slow memory (120 ns) which doubtless reduced costs.  BUT WITH A
MAC SE COSTING $3169 LIST WITH NO HARD DRIVE AND NO KEYBOARD, WE SURE ARE
PAYING FOR FAST RAM, WHY AREN'T WE GETTING IT?  MAYBE THAT'S WHY APPLE MAKES
THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE PROFIT PER COMPUTER SOLD OF ANY OF THE TOP 10
MICROCOMPUTER MANUFACTURERS.

    My firm, which will remain nameless because of a contractual agreement,
is a Certified Apple Developer, and by no means do I dislike using or
programming Macs.  But when Sun releases its rumored announcements in April
of a new line of graphic user-interface, UNIX-based, 33MHz and cheaper than
Macintosh workstations, I will be first in line to sell my Mac II and get
one.  And I encourage everyone else on the net who owns a Mac to do the
same.  Why be held back by overpriced, old technology when you can get the
same in a more powerful package for less?  I may be on the fringe of Mac
users now, but in a year, I predict that many more will be disillusioned too.
    GET ON THE BALL, APPLE.  LOWER YOUR PRICES AND IMPROVE YOUR MACHINES.
YOUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.

                                   -- Mark Wilkins