From: ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright)
Subject: Re: RE-MACS COST TOO MUCH (NOT!)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 17:49:44 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In <1992Aug28.134144.14772@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> smoon@strfleet.gsfc.nasa.gov (Sang J. Moon) writes:

>I've have a IIsi 5/80 with an extended keyboard and a 13" Apple color
>monitor.  These are the problems I've had on it in the single year
>I've used it:

>1. Sound goes out randomly.  I won't detail this because it's been
>   detailed in these newsgroups before.
>2. Monitor goes out randomly.  I've been told that it is a capacitor
>   problem common in certain serial number ranges.

Didn't your dealer tell you about AppleCare?  If it's less than
a year old, it's still under warantee.  Take it back to the dealer
and tell him to fix it. 


>3. Incompatibility when upgrading to system 7.  I finally had to
>   reinstall most of the software or get system 7 versions of software.

In most cases, if you purchased the software in the last year, 
you should have gotten System 7-compatible versions to begin with. 
Unless your software was pirated, this shouldn't have been a major
problem.  The number of programs that weren't System 7-compatible
wasn't that large to begin with, and I've never heard of any program
that had to be reinstalled.  It sounds to me like you were just doing
the things you were used to doing on a PC.


>   It was not just a simple installation like I see some people here
>   boast about.  If you use system 7, get Behierarhic or some similar
>   hierarchical menu extension.  It greatly increases the useability
>   of system 7.

Huh?  System 7 is hard to install because a hierarchical menu extension
increases its useability????


>4. Computer randomly hangs when accessing the ethernet card.  I still
>   haven't fully tracked down this problem.  It seems to have mostly
>   gone away when I reinstalled system 7 for the third time.

I'd suggest you scrap that ethernet card and get a Gatorbox -- that's
what all the Macs use around here and none have ever ahd problems to
the best of my knowledge.


>5. Microsoft Word 5.0.  Enough said.

The fact that you don't like a Microsoft product is one of your
best reasons for hating the Mac.  Enough said.


>And dealer support for the Mac really is no better and sometimes worse
>than for PCs.  

Unless, of course, the dealer (and perhaps the manufacturer) who 
sold you your clone four months ago is no longer in business.


>and I still haven't found an easy way to do wildcard
>operations on the Mac (i.e. "dir *.blk" or "del file*.*").  

You mean typing "ls *.blk" or "rm file*.*" at the
Aztec C shell prompt doesn't work?  Or the equivalent
commands in MPW?  Several people have already told you 
about this. 

>Windows comes with a decent word processor that I would compare with
>MacWrite, 

Well, actually, a stripped-down version of Microsoft Word,
which was number five on your list of reasons to hate the
Mac.

>a decent paint program that I would compare with MacPaint, 

Except, of course, that isn't stable, can't do such
rudimentary things as drawing lines with arrowheads,
and frequently adds artifacts to paintings when it
saves them. 

>Apple makes very good computers, but
>their prices are unrealistic when compared to the competition.

So, why are you afraid to compare their prices to *competitive*
PCs?  That is, PCs that have all of the same features.  Just 
saying, "I don't need all those Mac features" is no answer. A
Commodore 64 fan could say the same thing about your $1400 PC.