Re: PC or Mac?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <3c5c012d_4@news3.prserv.net>,
Tom Zuchowski <tzuchow@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
>"Matthew Russotto" <russotto@grace.speakeasy.net> wrote in message
>u5ldr9itgqhg9a@corp.supernews.com">news:u5ldr9itgqhg9a@corp.supernews.com...
>> >In turn, Apple has borrowed some other ideas because they were
>> >good:  expansion slots (missing in early Mac's),
>>
>> The idea was "borrowed" from the S-100 machines, if that.
>
>If I recall correctly, the IBM-PC development group recognized the value of
>the Apple II's open system and intentionally mimicked it as the best way to
>achieve market penetration. I often thought that Apple alienated a LOT of
>Apple II users with their early closed architecture.

Very very true -- I'm one of them.

When the Apple Lisa first appeared, an enthusiastic Apple II fellow who
had access to it demontrated it to me.  Well, the GUI was sort of fun,
but .... the price was outrageous!  Why should I pay 5-10 times more
for a computer with a closed architecture?  Well at least it has a
more powerful CPU (68000 in the Lisa, 6502 in the Apple II) and should
be faster, I figured, and did a quick'n'dirty benchmark: I wrote a loop
in Applesoft Basic and in Lisa Pascal which computer 1000 sines, and
timed them.  To my great disappointment, the Apple II was some 30%
faster -- in addition the Apple II produced 9 significant digits while
Lisa Pascal only could provide 7 significant digits.  I later told some
friends this, and after that we referred to the Lisa as the "impotent"
computer....

Some years later the Mac appeared -- it seemed to be a lot like Lisa,
but OK at least it was some 3 times cheaper, but still quite expensive.
Quite naturally I wasn't particularly integested.  I was then dreaming
about somehow getting a number crunching chip -- I would go for either
Intel's 8087 or Motorola's 68881, but the 68881 got delayed, and the
Mac had no socket for it anyway.  I got the ALF 8088 coprocessor board
for my Apple II, and was considering getting the add-on card to the
ALF card - that would have enabled me to put an 8087 in my Apple II.
But then the first cheap PC compatible motherboards arrived, and I
got one of these instead.

> By the time Apple recognized its mistake (after Jobs left? It's well
> known how much he hated open architectures) irreversible market chare
> damage had been done.

BTW what happened to Steve Wozniak?  He made both the Apple I and Apple II,
but I'm not aware of any other computer of his construction.


-- 
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