From: tonyrich@grana.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Rich)
Subject: Re: What's missing from Q700/Q950?
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire -- Computer Science Dept.
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 01:04:47 GMT

Ken Sturrock responds to some of my suggestions for Quadras:

>TR> 3.  Video support for 19" color monitors (1024x768) -- 8-bit color.

>>3.) 19 inches!? Learn to conserve screen space, it's good for your soul.
>>    I agree, however that it would be nice, but most of the new "personal
>>    workstations" are using 16" monitors with extra $$$ upgrade to a 19".

Well, we're trying to plan for the future.  If we can get 19" monitors in
the first place, we can write and run some big screen-eating simulations
and algorithm animations in our computer labs.  Maybe someday we could
try CAD-on-the-cheap.  But we'll have to live with those monitors forever;
the money to upgrade a lab of 16" monitors to 19" will NEVER EVER materialize,
and 21" monitors are still too expensive.

>TR> 4.  Educational pricing at $2000 or less per machine.

>>4.) "Why when I was a youngster we paid $2500 for a Mac SE with 1M of RAM
>>    .....and we liked it!". Seriously, what does a 68040 [chip] cost?

Suggestion #4 is in response to current pricing on the DOS side of the force.

>TR> 5.  A/UX right-to-copy licenses for $50 or less per machine (not $290).

>>5.) low-cost A/UX. Nice idea, but seriously. I wonder what Apple has
>>    to pay AT&T for each A/UX license. If UNIX is your goal, and money
>>    is the problem...there are better ways to get UNIX than by turning 
>>    a nice spiffy Macintosh into a UNIX machine.

I don't know what UNIX licenses cost Apple.  I do know that $290/machine is
VERY high compared to educational site licenses for a lot of other software,
which is often $30-50 per machine.  (Hey, this is a wish list, right? 8)

One economic argument for having an A/UX Mac lab in a university setting is
that you can run three software platforms on one hardware platform.  We use
HyperCard and Word in some intro courses, so we need Macs to support that
and other Mac stuff.  At a cost in performance, we can still do our DOS stuff
on Macs using SoftPC.  Third, we can support our upper-level courses that
use Unix, DEC FUSE, and X-Windows stuff seamlessly on Macs if we have A/UX.
Finally, having Unix on every instructional machine (including a DEC
file/cycle/window server or two) makes system administration (like backups
and file movement) a lot easier than supporting three OS's separately.

All that can be a persuasive argument if you can't afford a lab of pure-Unix
workstations AND buy a lab of Macs AND upgrade all your old 286 DOS machines,
which is the situation we're currently in.

>No slams were intended with this, but I think that the spirit of Bill's
>question was focused on hardware.

Well, okay.  But Apple's recent unbundling of software has made buying
Mac high-end hardware less attractive, especially given that high-end
PC hardware is *very* attractively priced right now.  My suggestions are
aimed at making the Quadras look better from a holistic standpoint.
With *loaded* 486 PCs selling for under $2000 (mail-order) and a Quadra 5/0 
at over $3000 educational pricing with no monitor, no keyboard, and no
interesting software (HyperCard Player is not interesting), we Mac
evangelists have a credibility problem.

Besides, the Quadra hardware is already pretty wonderful.
I didn't want to leave bill coderre dangling from an empty thread!  ;)

  -- Tony
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc