Re: IIgs emulation...

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

Sheldon Simms wrote:
>otter wrote:
>> Rick Hatton wrote,
>> in response to my reply:
>> >
>> >> Mr. Bozo, how about writing Bernie for us Pee-Cee users?  I admire
>> >> the PowerPC, but not all of us have enough money to own such costly
>> >> machines.
>> >
>> >You can get a $995 200 mhz C500 from Umax, and MacTel has a 200 mhz
>> >CPU/monitor package for $999
>> >
>> >Rick
>> >
>>
>> Uhm...  $1000 is rather costly for the average person as well.  Most
>> people just don't have that much spare change lying about and hafta
>> live with older, less expensive (yet still quite reliable machines.)
>
>Oh please, those are brand new. If you're getting a used computer, you
>can get a used Powermac for a lot less too.

The Umax is the PowerPC platform with a performance to price ratio
closest to that of PC clones.  If MacOS is ever going to compete in
the greater consumer market viably, Apple needs to let the clones,
such as Umax, live.  So far, it turns out, Umax is the only clone
maker allowed to live.  Too bad, PowerComputing and Motorolla did
much to reawaken competition in the PowerPC arena.

While Umax is getting close in performace per $ and certainly has
superior hardware for the price to Apple and superior engineering
to the PC clones, it still seems rather expensive to the PC user.
I've seen the Umax and I'm impressed.  However, for the price of
a new Umax, you can get a PC with almost double the hard disk
capacity and double the RAM.  Users who've learned what it takes
to make Win 95 and/or 80x86 machines run smoothly and well have
a hard time justifying switching to even a Umax.

As for used computers, it is very hard to find a used Umax.  It
is very easy to find a used 80x86 PC, even Pentiums, and when
found, the PCs are much cheaper to buy.  It is somewhat common
to see the very earliest PowerMacs from _Apple_, but those are
pretty bad slow-poke machines, unlike modern PowerPC computers.
The platform has really improved much since then.  If we are
talking about the very earliest Apple PowerMacs, a fast AMD
derived '486 type computer with a good video accelerator will
outperform it in many cases.  Again, this is _not_ true with
_modern_ PowerPC machines, only the earliest PowerMacs from
Apple.

-Scott G.