Re: A2Central News

[Roger Johnstone <roger@roger.geek.nz.removethisbit>]

In <eegbe1$2nuq$1@merope.saaf.se> Paul Schlyter wrote:

> Btw, true Mac devotees must have a hard time now: many years ago,
> Apple abandoned the GCR diskette format on the Mac and went for MFM
> like everyone else.

They supported GCR disks on all Macs until they dropped the floppy drive 
all together.

> Apple also scrapped the SCSI harddisks for IDE harddisks.

SCSI was the right choice in 1986. Early IDE disks were tied directly to 
the PC bus, which made them cheap and easy to use with a PC, but no good 
as an external hard drive for a Mac. Apple didn't switch to IDE hard 
drives until the interface was improved (block access instead of having 
to manually enter the cylinder/head/sector settings, DMA modes).

> They added USB ports and not only Firewire.

Actually Apple added USB first, then FireWire.

> And now, Apple made the big switch to CPU's from "the big satan" Intel..... :-)

Ooh, that had a few innocent Mac users perplexed.  For years Apple had 
been telling them that the PowerPC was 'up to twice as fast' as Intel's 
processors. For some things it was, but unfortunately not for the stuff 
the average home user runs. For most uses the Intel x86 and PowerPC have 
always had similar performance at the same clock speed.

Again though, PowerPC was the right choice to make at the time. Back in 
1991 the best CPU Intel sold was the 80486 and the upcoming Pentium 
didn't look like a great design, while the PowerPC had the backing of 
IBM and Motorola. Things have changed though. IBM and Motorola have lost 
interest in the PowerPC for personal computer use and the Core series 
from Intel is now the best general-purpose CPU money can buy.

-- 
* Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand -> http://roger.geek.nz
* PS/2 Mouse Adapter for vintage Apple II or Mac
* SCART RGB cable for Apple IIGS