From: jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth)
Subject: Re: PC and Mac OEs (was Re: 1 Thing Windows can do but OS/2 can't.)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 16:15:24 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Jul29.091555.19260@cs.hw.ac.uk> neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:
>
>Well a 5 year old PC (circa 1987) would be about ready for the bin. If it
>hasn't fallen apart by now, it will be so underpowered as to be useless
>under Windows. Yer old Mac still pushes System 7 along at a speed that would
>put a lot of 386SX/16's and 20's with same RAM and Hard disc to shame.
>

No, a five year old pc wouldn't be ready for the dust bin.  It is a very easy
matter of opening up the box and slipping in an above-board 386 or a new
motherboard.

>Agreed some expansions are expensive, but in both camps if you want the
>latest turbo-nutter model of PC/Mac it is always advisable to start from
>scratch.
>

Exactly, but since there are currently few makers of Mac clone computers and
of hardware,  you have to pay much more to get one that says "for Macs" on it.
(even though some of the components are identical or are different by a single
connector).

>
>Colour. Unless colour is used sparingly it destroys the interaction of
>the desktop. I know this, I DO HCI !!

Why is the command/menu bar stuck at the top of the screen?  Why is it so
drab looking?  Why can't you open the menu bar with the touch of a key
(like the alt-key in Windows) and keep the menus open so that you can read
them?  Why do most mice on public access Macs seem to not work well after
a limited time when after the same time, the mice on pc's, Suns, X's, and
Sparcs still work flawlessly?

>
>Why do you hold your Windows apps in Program manager and not in the filer
>like any other GUI. Becasue Windows is so bloody dumb, it needs info on the
>files before it executes them so it doesn't wipe the machine out. Any

I like it that way because most of my work is not editing existing files but
is useful for creating new ones.  If I do need to edit a file, I usually
launch the app by clicking on the file in the fileman, by launching the app
and opening the file, or by editing the properties of the app to automagically
load the file.  Very simple to do.

>Don't give me Mac desktop is butt ugly ...........
>
>Windows looks like someone has eaten a technicolour lunch, drank some
>blackcurrent juice and barfed all over the monitor. It is TOO colourful
>
>I agree about the fact the single button on a Mac mouse IS a pain. Though
>stop for a minute. How many of your Windows applications use the right
>mouse (count them NOW !!).

Either 7 or eight, have to count.  In DOS apps, just about every program I
have that is mouse aware uses both (or all three if you have a threee button
mouse).

>
>Keyboard shortcuts. Have you used a Mac recently. I think your memory is

Used one yesterday.  Some of the people I work with are so mentally deficient 
that they think it is worthwhile to work on a mac.  Sure you can make short-
cuts, but not all apps have them built-in or standardized.  But you can't
open a menu bar with the touch of the keyboard, scroll through the options,
and learn which features are included in app.

>the Mac. Many of the shortcuts are different to Word for Windows. Does MS
>have a clue about look and feel !?).

Yes, M.S. has a clue about look and feel.  They saw what people like about
macs and the many things that they dislike.  They kept the features that 
people like, and added many more that people want.  People don't want 
dialog boxes that have plain rounded-corner rectangular buttons.  They
really don't look like buttons at all. Instead, they want buttons that look
like buttons.

We can go on forever listing all the problems with macs, but why waste the 
bandwidth on already known and proven failures?  People use Windows/OS 2
because they contain all the good parts of a mac's GUI without all the
ugly, tedious parts.

>


Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy