From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: If things had been different... (was: FCC etc)
Date: 6 Jan 1993 19:40:57 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: gondolin.pubs.stratus.com

In article <16GWBFSJ@cc.swarthmore.edu>  
eoliver@ralph.cs.haverford.edu (Erik Oliver) writes:
> Actually the 68060 will be coming out in '94 before/around the same  
time
> as the new PowerPC 601 from Apple/IBM comes out.  It will actually  
be
> faster than this bottom of the line PowerPC from the specs,  
although
> running UNIX generally makes a machine "seem" faster than running  
the
> MacOS, I mean compare my Quadra 950 with my NeXTStation color, when  
I
> use my nextstation, three or four other people may be on the  
machine, no
> problem, one my Quadra 950 I can't even format a disk at the same  
time I
> am printing a document.  

This is a bad point for comparison.  Yes, a Unix system can format
a disk while doing something else.  But, overall, my 68040
NeXT is slower for many things than 68030 Macs that I work on,
and slower, for many things, than my 386/33 4 M PC running Windows.

System 7.1 is better than System 6.0 but, it
> needs the type of multithreading/multitasking of UNIX/OS/2 which  
enable
> them to do more in the background and thus "seem" significantly  
faster.
> 
> For example, formatting disks of my NeXT never bothers me because  
it
> occurs completely transparently, so I can continue being productive
> instead of paused.

But I'm only formatting disks a small portion of the time. What 
I do most of the time is work in a text editor.  Word for Windows
blows away FrameMaker (NeXT).  For much of what many of us
do, so-called  "real" multitasking (TM) is not needed.  Being
able to switch back and forth between Word, Excel, and FoxPro
is quite enough.

> 
> I am looking forward to getting a i486 laptop and I am working on
> convincing the store to bundle OS/2 and delete every trace of  
Windoze,
> (various expletives describing my opinion of windoze).  I  
personally,
> think it ironic that Microsoft is assisting Apple in driving up  
sales of
> Macs by releasing Windoze.  

Windows is driving up sales of Macs because it forced Apple to
finally drop their price. It used to be that you payed a huge
premium for a Mac, but it was worth it in many cases because
the interface was so much better.  Windows has narrowed the
gap considerably, so people are no longer willing to pay a 
huge amount for a slightly better interface.

It seems to me that all Windoze does is
> convince people of how bad DOS really is, and how nice a GUI can  
be, but
> once they see a mac/next or anything that works well, they want  
that.  

I use all three. I now have a NeXT and a Mac in my office, use
a Sun running X/Motif reasonably often, and have a 386 running
Windows at home.   I like all four to some degree (though Motif
really seems like a poor-man's Windows).  All have their 
strenghts; all have their weaknesses.  

--
Jim Mann            
Stratus Computer   jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com  

Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy