Re: Need Help With Apple History Lesson

[90taobri@BLUFFS.SCAR.UTORONTO.CA (TAO BRIAN T)]

The following revelation escaped Gregory Ross Thompson's lips:
>
>Can you run
>Mathematica on your II or GS?  No.  Can you run Frame Maker?  No.  Can
>you do heavy-duty circuit simulation on your GS?  No.

    No, but that doesn't invalidate the Apple II(*) as a great computer.
Your average "home hobbyist" has no need for Mathematica, FrameMaker,
SQL databases, fast C++ compilers, etc., etc.  I'll sit myself down in
front of a friend's NeXTstation if I want FrameMaker, or I'll walk over
to the school to use Mathematica on the RS/6000's.  Both provide better
solutions than using a 486 for those tasks, but it doesn't mean the 486
is a bad computer either.

>Well, hey, do you hear people saying: "Wow, I sure as hell wish I had
>a CM-5 on my desk."  I don't.

    I say that all the time.  ;-)

>Face the facts.  What's the latest spec?  Every 3 years,
>processor speed doubles?  Something like that.

    If you believe Bob Cringely, it's every 18 months (cf: "Accidental
Empires").

>As schemes like the Alpha's superscalar/superpipeline
>architecture become proven, they will appear in desktop machines.  Is
>that bad?  No.  It's good.

    I think James Hague's original proposition was that people these days
are too caught up in the rapid pace of bleeding-edge technology.  Why do
some individuals (your "average home user") feel compelled to drop a few
C-notes every year to put the fastest CPU under the hood?  Not everyone
needs (or wants) to run Mathematica, AutoCAD, Studio 3D, etc. at home.
You don't need a 486 to type a letter to Aunt Martha either.
--
Brian T. Tao    =*8-) | ::::::::> 90taobri@chasm.scar.utoronto.ca <::::::::
Dept. of Exobiology   | :> taob@r-node.pci.on.ca : taob@terranet.cts.com <:
University of Toronto | "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."