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From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Apple System 7.0 [ and some 1.4
Message-ID: <129000002@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 17 May 89 05:00:00 GMT
References: <6864@cbmvax.UUCP>
Lines: 45
Nf-ID: #R:cbmvax.UUCP:6864:p.cs.uiuc.edu:129000002:000:2287
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    May 17 00:00:00 1989


/* Written  5:17 am  May 11, 1989 by bdiscoe@tybalt.caltech.edu in p.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.amiga */
> AMIGA's are inexpensive to BEGIN WITH.  You don't need to be tricked into
> thinking you're getting some huge discount.  Apple's prices are so
> grossly inflated, it's a rip-off even buying a peripheral from them.
> This is a straight business FACT, not opinion.

Well, in some cases this FACT is dead WRONG.  *ALL* Mac's come with
very high-quality displays, and very good mice/keyboards.  I don't
think the Amiga monitors and mice and keyboard are of equal quality.


All this Mac-bashing is senseless.  Clearly, Apple spends most of its
development money on OTHER "wins".  The Mac is an interactive machine.
Multitasking is nearly useless for interactive work (spreadsheet / word
processing / digital darkroom / picture editing).

Background tasking is nice for printing and downloading, which the
macintosh supports, using its klugey (but workable) periodic tasking
system.  It is nice for compilation too, and some slow mac compilers
support it.  But lightspeedC compiles 1 module, binds 10-20 modules, &
launches in ~ 5 seconds flat, so there's no time to fire up a game.
I admit the mac needs a good background ray-tracer.

Apple spends more money on developing a clean user interface, on
having a FULL FUNCTION network, on developing Quickdraw & 32-bit
color, its picture description language, providing gobs of high-level
toolbox support, and supporting the TEN macintoshes released to date
(Lisa, 128K, 512K, 512KE, Plus, II, IIx, SE/030, SEx, IIcx).

I think the mac is a nearly perfect "Personal Computer" by the
original definition that came from Xerox PARC.  The *Application*
programmer is able to rip out ANYTHING in the OS and either replace
it, extend it, or simply disable it.  This includes adding virtual
memory (*wow*).

I used to program Xerox DLions with multitasking & virtual memory, and
they thrashed like hell with 2-3 tasks running, and died for sure with
5 tasks running at once.  I sure hope the amiga is more robust.

Oh geez, now I'm going to get a flood of flame mail *shudder*

Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies