From: jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy)
Subject: Re: Macintosh bigots
Organization: Hamilton College - Clinton, NY
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 03:25:04 GMT

In article <1eeaq7INNup@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> an780@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Travis Grundke) writes:
>>>
>>>Joseph:  If you ever graduate I'll be amazed.
>>>
>>>Do you wonder what Joseph would think if he saw a Mac II with a window
>>>spanning both a 19" 24-bit color display and a monochrome portrait display
>>>at the same time?  
>>>
>>>Answer (you choose)    Where's the eject button?
>>>                       Does it come with a CLI?
>>>                       Is extended memory standard?
>>>                       Gee! That 19" color monitor is soo small.
>>>                       Can I format floppies in the background?
>>>                       Will it take PC adapter cards?
>>>                       Where's the 5 1/4 drive?
>>> 
>>>
>>>[MGM]
>>
>>Hey, to you it's Professor Malloy, Ph.D.  So much for the personal
>>insult.  Don't make unfounded ASSumptions..
>>
> Well Professor Malloy, he's got a point. When people make comments about
>compact Macs, they generally make them ASSuming they're the only Macs
>available. I'm not saying you did....

Uh, that's Herr Professor Doktor Malloy, bitte!

>>I suppose your point is that the Mac advanced beyond its initial,
>>crippled state.  Please show me where I said anything to the contrary.
>>If you re-read whay I wrote, you'll see that I was recounting a story
>>from the past.  The past is not the present, see?  (So, for your ability
>>to read what I wrote and reason with that, I give you an F!)
>>
> Yes, but you only mentioned THE PAST, not the present. There are so damned
>many people who make the same ASSumptions as made above that its what we
>take as you mean. Clarify next time, eh?

Please read the original post again, slowly this time so you can
comprehend its depths.  I've deleted it only to save space.  Now, see
that part with the numbers '1984'?  That's a date, anno domini, a time
shortly after the Mac was introduced.  I don't know how anyone can be
clearer than that, but then again, if you're bigoted, you don't need any
facts other than the ones you invent, I suppose.

If the argument is that one ought not to discuss history on Usenet, I
suspect you're in the minority.  And why would you want to dictate what
I may write about in the first place?  If you don't like it, press 'n'
now. 

>>The Mac you describe, alas, is still in the minority.  We're a heavily
>>Macked-up campus and most of the machines available are either 512s or
>>some flavor of a plus.  What has held IS back?  Cost.  The Mac, until
>>very recently, was never much of a bargain.
>>
> No, it wasn't a great bargain up until the end of 1990. What campus are
>you on that's still using 512s or a Plus? The coloor Macs are now much more
>popular than the older compact designs. Don't knock it til you've tried it.

It's Hamilton College.

I don't knock 'em (except on Uselessnet), I just don't buy 'em.

>>I usually don't return insults, but, hey, it's Usenet!  If you ever
>>learn to read, it'll be amazing!  (Must be too much time diddling with
>>those, um, little pictures on your Mac...)
>>
> No, maybe your mind is just too fried from using a DOS prompt and lower
>effeciency for the past 8 years? <As you say- its Usenet!) Once again- if
>pictures are so bad, according to you, why is everyone rushing to copy
>them?
>>jmalloy@hamilton.edu
>>
Yeah, that's it!  Fried on DOS!  I can see the bumper stickers now!  

At any rate, whatever efficiency rate I have enjoyed over the years would
have been cut in half had I wasted my money on Macs during that time.
At each stage along the way, I spent less than my macked-up colleagues
and could do just as much just as easily (to my mind, it isn't so much the
OS that determines how real work gets done, it's the applications that
people write for them that really get the job done) as they.  As for
those icons, well, I happily confess to having some on my Windows screen
right now.  But how do I launch applications?  I use a PD freeware
program called 'Imposter,' which gives Windows users a CLI and will
start both Windows and DOS applications with equal ease.  Of course,
there's always a DOS window at the ready (with UDOS, which provides some
Unix-like functionality under DOS).  I don't have to use them thar icon
critters and I do it as little as possible.  I use Windows primarily as
a multi-tasker (tried OS/2, but it's worse in my experience) and it's
fine.  (I'd tried Desqview some time ago, but Quarterdeck's support has
never been very good.)

Let's see, Mac introduced in, what, 1983 or 1984 again (numbers here are
years, so we're mired in history again!!); first signficant version of
Windows appears in 1990.  Macs are outsold, historically (that nasty word
again!) by DOS machines something like 10 to 1.  Some rush, eh?  (I do
hold out hope that someone, somewhere will come up with a GUI that's
better than Windows, OS/2, and Mac; if we're going to end up with these
critters, I want a decent one.)

Look, if you're happy with a Mac, you're welcome to it.  I even
recommend them to the less computer-interested among friends and
colleagues (and I mean them no insult; for some folks, a computer should
be an appliance, and the Mac comes closer to that than any other;
besides, campus IS supports the Mac, so it relieves me of advising
chores!).  So enjoy it.  But read postings more carefully the next time,
eh?

jmalloy@hamilton.edu


Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy