From: furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: How MS could annoy Apple
Date: 16 Nov 92 07:08:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: sequent.1992Nov16.070807.12915
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.

In article <Bxq6pt.4K5@beach.csulb.edu> sichermn@beach.csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman) writes:
>In article <d_t1mym@rpi.edu> gilem@aix.rpi.edu (Michael R. Gile) writes:
>>In article <1992Nov13.171213.10861@leland.Stanford.EDU> spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu writes:
>>>Daniel M Silevitch writes
>>>> What would happen if...
>>>> 
>>>>   Microsoft ported Windows NT to the Macintosh and the PowerPC?
>>>> 
>>>Nothing.  Who would want to buy expensive hardware to run mediocre  
>>>software?  Mac hardware is expensive, and the only reason to buy it  
>>>is that you get the Mac OS.  On the other hand, no matter how good NT  
>>>turns out to be, Windows is still Windows and far inferior to either  
>>>the Mac OS or NeXTSTEP.
>>
>>give me a break!  How can you say that when my 386 runs MUCH faster than
>>a macIIci, which has a comparible processor, and costs about twice as much.
>>It also hangs a lot less than the IIci.  Also, neither windows 3.1 nor 
>>MacOS can hold a stick to NeXTSTEP.  I've used all three, and have yet to
>>see a NeXT crash!  I think that you should reevaluate your opinions, 
>>and you method of grouping things 
>>
>>>
>>>What would make much more sense would be to port either the Mac OS or  
>>>NeXTSTEP to intel hardware. Then people can get cheap hardware and  
>>>great software.  Apple should have done this but missed the boat.   
>>>NeXT is doing it, and IMHO will do very well.
>>>
>>
>>If apple did this it would kill their rediculously high profit
>>margins on their software, and would put them in direct OS competition
>>with windowsNT, NeXTSTEP, OS/2, and UNIX.   They would fail miserably
>>in my opinion, even with AU/X.
>
>  Just to throw a little reality into this theological discussion:
>
>  There is a version of NextStep for 486 systems scheduled for release
>'Next' year, I believe.
>
>  A recent issue of ComputerWorld (and perhaps other rags) reports that
>Apple has a version of System 7.0 running on Intel hardware (wasn't
>specific about which chip family - RISC or 80x86). It remarked that
>Apple was considering what releasing a non-Mac version of their OS/GUI
>would do to sales [of hardware].
>
>   Another, unmentioned, question, is do they want to join the OS/GUI
>wars currently raging in the Intel architecture side of the world with
>all the marketing costs, declining margins, etc. and can they get the
>application/tool vendors to follow and leave the somewhat less cutthroat
>Mac marketplace for a more crowded PC[compatible] one.
>
>

That is an interesting premise. I just read a post by Brian
Sturgill concerning the hoops one has to jump through to get a Mac
to do a simple task. One could argue that this is the price of
portability to cause 10 to 15 times the amount of coding via
structures vs function calls, but it does make a sailent point.
If this workload transfers to the PC side of this release then
Apple just shot themselves in the foot again. Windows vs DOS was
bad, but coding like that makes no sense from a cost effective
point of view. I seriously doubt anyone will take it too seriously
unless there comes along a few good program generators like Actor,
etc. Most programmers and ISV do not want to fight the environment
just to get some work done. Also, I was quite amused by Brian's
description of how to trace the documentation through in getting
something done. Reminds me of the complaints raised over the old
IBM/360 manuals. This was the other thing George Amdahl is noted
for at IBM; obfuscation of the reading material :).

JMHO...

-- 
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Xref: sparky comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:2682 comp.sys.mac.advocacy:2639