From: jess@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Jess M Holle)
Subject: Re: "Windoze" slow? Naah...Re: pc and mac: was RE: 486 and mac benchmarks
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 22:00:10 GMT

>    The mac mouse appears not to be accelerated.  The mouse pointer
>didnt move as nicely as microsoft mice.  (Not to mention the mouse has
>only one button.

The mouse speed can easily be adjusted via the Mouse control panel.  If this
is not fast enough, Mouse2 (freeware) will double this speed.  This makes 
it as fast as any mouse I've used.

The single button is an advantage!

>    The mac appears to lack a built in help system.  I was using
>mathematica and there wasnt any builtin help.

Mathematica had an obvious online help system in earlier versions.  Most
decent Mac programs do.  Mathematica does have online help in the recent
versions, you just have to type ??<command> to get it.  This is Wolfram's
fault, not the Mac's.  System 7 savvy guidelines suggest that online help
be placed at the end of the help menu (second icon from right).

>    If the mac is suppose to be truly a multitasking system, then why do
>you have to load multifinder on top of the mac os?

You are still using System 6.0, then obviously.  In System 6.0, 
multitasking was provided through additional code found in a file called
Multifinder, which you could choose to/not-to run.  In System 7.0, this
code was placed in the System file itself, and you are not given the
choice whether it is executed or not.  (The code was also improved/
enhanced _somewhat_).

>    If macs are catching on so much then why has windows os sold more
>copies than all the macs sold?

Probably because the number of %$#!& old PC boxes around the world is
enormous.  In order to obtain a GUI, owners of these machines have 3
choices: buy Windows (very cheap and you get a $%&! pathetic GUI), buy
OS/2 (you pay a little more, give up more hard drive space, but get an
operating system), or sell the PC and buy a Mac (most expensive, but the
best GUI is obtained).  Most PC owners, thinking of only the sales lines
"it's just like a Mac" and "it's really cheap," go for Windows, since they
don't know what they are missing.  (I have a friend who'd love to find a
really good price for his 486 33MHz clone, so he can buy a Mac [IIsi] to 
replace it [he just got the 486 this fall]).

As far as new machines sold, the Mac is either in first or second place.

>    If the mac was so successful, then why was apple so eager to be
>friends with ibm.

In order to develop cheap RISC chips that rival RS-6000's in speed and
the 68000/80x86 lines in cost, while making the architecture easily 
scalable.  Also, to grab a larger portion of the market in a thrust
toward this new platform.

>    Why hasnt motorola keep up to pace with intel with product design?

Motorola had a few problems getting the 040 up to higher clock speeds,
etc.  Big deal.  At least when it came out it wasn't full of bugs as the
first 486's were, as I recall.

>    If the mac was so successful, why are so many mac software companies
>porting over their apps to windows?

To get more money, of course.  Why do companies such as Informix support
a product on 12 different platforms?  Because the first 11 turned out to
be inadequate?  That sounds unlikely.  Cross platform availability is a
strong selling point for many applications regardless of the platform.

>    If macs are designed so well, why are they now using pc-like
>keyboards?

So that people who have to type on both don't have problems adjusting.  I
am now on an ADM-5 terminal, all of it's keys are in totally different
places.  It annoys me to NO end.  Big deal, as if the key layout was a
huge design issue in the overall system.

>    If macs are so easy to use, then why is it that in our computers
>labs that macs are generally unused.  (This is very true.)

Well, perhaps the software/hardware configuration there is pathetic.  The
only times that I have seen Macs unused in a Mac lab is when: the only
software available is MacWrite (and other similar outdated stuff) OR
the Mac are Mac Plusses (or worse) OR the Macs have only 1 MB of memory
(or all of these, OUCH).

>very confused about the big deal about macs,

Yes, you seem confused about many things.


Jess Holle

B.T.W.  You can buy a decent Mac (IIsi) from CompUSA for $1400, I believe
        it was.  I saw the ad on TV a couple of weeks ago.