Re: APPLE LISA 2

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article bjblackbear@ibm.net (B.J. Major) writes...

>Rick Hatton <hattonr@aug.com> wrote:
> 
>> KCUF airmaster <airmaster@KCUF.org> wrote:
>> 
>> > Yes, but only the PC does it.  The Mac isn't stable enough 
>> >to multitask anyhow.
>> 
>> My Mac is quite stable. My Mac uses cooperative multitasking, as opposed
>> to pre-emptive. It is my understanding that the stabililty of the system
>> in cooperative multitasking has a great deal to do with the application
>> coding. Code properly, and the cooperative multitasking works well.
>> .. and the Mac dos have an OS that the memory do-dads that windows 95 is
>> supposed to have... Linux.
>
>Agreed.  And the above remarks "but only the PC does it" applies *only*
>when you are talking about certain OSs on the PC anyhow, not what's used
>by the mainstream users.  Bottom line is that the PC can multitask well
>when it's using certain OSs *as can the Mac* (using either Linux or the
>Be OS).

    Windows 95 is not a mainstream operating system for the PC? Hm, 
when you calculate the number of PC's out there, and figure in that 
over 85% use Win95, you would be hard pressed not to call it main-
stream. We went over this before, Windows 95 supports preemptive
multitasking which is true multitasking. 

    If anything, Linux and BeOS are not mainstream on the Macintosh.
The vast majority (which is an understatement) of Macintosh users do 
work with MacOS, and that is cooperative multitasking. Incidentally,
Seven Hills' program called The Manager, for the Apple IIgs, supports
cooperative multitasking if a program is written to take advantage
of it. There is also GNO/ME, which does preemptive multitasking on
the IIgs, but I still don't consider the GS a multitasking machine.
I do not doubt the Macintosh being able to preemptive multitask with
a major rewrite of MacOS, but the point is Apple has _not_ written that
update and we're now approaching 1998. These days multitasking is not
some gee-whiz feature as it was when the Amiga was introduced in 1985, 
it is now considered a _standard_ and people _expect_ to have it. I do
not get excited by my PC multitasking, I just expect nothing less in
this day.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca