Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!kamath
From: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: GS/OS and programming standards
Message-ID: <12031@reed.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 89 04:59:35 GMT
References: <8903041451.aa16786@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> <8997@claris.com> <2668@uokmax.UUCP>
Reply-To: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath)
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
Lines: 60

In article <2668@uokmax.UUCP> cbdougla@uokmax.UUCP (Collin Broadrick Douglas) writes:
>>
>>My personal advice regarding the Apple IIgs is this: if you NEED
>>an Apple II, by a IIc+.  Otherwise, BUY A MAC!!
>> 
>>Better yet, Jeremy, since you're at CMU, maybe you can get access
>>to a NeXT.

Well, sort of.  I'd get a //e.  That's what I did (I got a second //e
rather than a GS).  I'm waiting.  I can still have a lot of fun with
me //e (and now that I have the 65816 option and a meg in one of my
//e's, I can have even more fun), so why should I buy a GS.  I don't
want the Graphics or the Sound.  On the other hand, I'm not going to
tell someone "don't get a GS" if they want one.  It has some very good
things going for it.

I certainly wouldn't by anything but a Mac ][ with an 80 Meg 18ms
drive and 5 megs in it (just happens that's what I use here at work.)
And the color monitor.  That's a lot of bread.  Like, upward of $6000.

So why not get a NeXT.  Once you've seen one, you'll know why.  Unless
your a real Mac freak, then you will think it's great because it
"brings the power of Unix to the Macintosh environment" or some other
garbage.  In my opinion, the Mac "environment" is pretty crappy when
compared to things like X and SunView.  I particularly like SunView,
but it lacks portability.  Interestingly enough, the op/sys of the
next works pretty well, though A) I hear from folks that NeXT will not
support NFS in the future, and will supply *server* software only,
*not client*. this is just plain boneheaded, and B) the windowing
environ dies a lot.  I mean a *lot*.  I can't stand having a *POWER*
button (that's right, button, not switch) right next to the brightness
*BUTTON* (Yeah, I know) so that people keep turning the machine off
rather than brightenning the display.  And to top *that* off, in
release .8, you aren't supposed to use the power key (I know, since I
managed to really trash an optical drive turning the thing off like
this) but instead are supposed to use the very non-approved (except
for this release, since the power key isn't working right) method of
getting into the NMI monitor (with the magice sequence of command-~)
and halting.  Really.  Reminds me of Sun's Alt1-A.  Pretty boneheaded,
though I understand you can turn off the sun's death button.

Ah, go get a sun.  They are really nice and don't have really buggy
software, and can be had in the $4000 range.

BUT:  I don't have $4000, and I *do* have two //e's, and my (insert
generic term for woman you live with) has a //c.  so I'm gonna have
some fun, and I'm damn tired of people telling me I'm a fool.

Anyone wanna buy a vax 11/785 for $15,000?  Yeah, I know, on the high
side, but hey, we're not taking serious offers just yet.  And before
you go jumping about how cheap that is (if you're not aware of how
expensive that it), keep in mind that it take over $10000 to
refrigerate the damn thing, and doesn't include service calls. . .

Sean Kamath
-- 
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