Re: Why the Apple II was on the right track...

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <sheldon-2202970316470001@lpm2-24.atlcom.net>,
Sheldon Simms <sheldon@atlcom.net> wrote:
>In article <5em56j$pkc$1@darla.visi.com>, nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
>In both cases, adding a new hard
>drive amounts to "plug", "power on". Adding memory is "open lid", "snap",
>"power on". Adding a video card is "open lid", "plug", "power on". No
>screwing around with dip switches, whacked up drivers, configuration
>files, IRQ conflicts, etc... I guess I'm just a lazy moron since I prefer
>not to have to get my hands dirty.

   HD and memory installs in my PC have been just as simple; video a
matter of booting, picking from a menu, rebooting. In fact, my RamFAST
'complained' more about a new HD being installed than my PC. About the
only DIPs my PC has inside it are for the CPU and associated
motherboard speeds. PCs were getting pretty close to plug and run
before MS came along with their bass-ackward plug-and-pray
implementation. 

   A lot of these 'horror stories' of PCs with hardware installation
nightmares may just be either marketing hype from Apple, or stuff
messed up by the idiots who shouldn't have been touching a computer to
begin with, such as the true tech support nightmare tales-- idiots who
think their CD-ROM drive is a cupholder, etc. Some idiot of that
caliber trying to muck with their system *will* mess it up to a state
requiring a full reinstall of whatever OS runs on it.

   Don't make a computer that any idiot can use, keep any idiot away
until they've been educated enough not to do any damage.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein