Re: Wozniak vs Jobs

[regnirps@aol.com (Regnirps)]

Jeff Lemke <lemke@terra.cira.colostate.edu> wrote:


>Sorry if I stepped on any toes about the Lisa.  I was repeating
>something I had either read in BYTE Magazine in the 1995 issue of the
>20th anniversary of personal computing, or something I had heard in the
>PBS miniseries "Revenge of the Nerds".  I have no personal experience
>with using Lisas.  Perhaps I shouldn't reference a non-Apple source of
>information in an Apple newsgroup.


Of course you are right that the Mac/LaserWriter/PostScript super combination
was a Jobs brainchild and nobody has ever really caught up.

I would argue that Macs are still preemminent in DTP despite attempts by PC
software vendors. The Wintell systems are just too undetemninistic. You can pop
a floppy when it is trying to use it and I notice that PC users on Win95 still
double check to make sure things really happen like file copying or moving
around in directories.

One of the things that kept Apple so low to respond was the longevity of the
Apple II. When we reverse engineered the first IBM PCs they were so ridiculous,
psuedo 16 bit processor on 8 bit buss (actuallt 9 bit with parity!), very slow,
idiotic memory architechture, video that flashed and stressed the monitor
circuitry, limited interrrupts for I/O and none of the automatic features of
Apple II and Mac like plug & play or networking.

The rate of improvement was greater than expected though still very very
cheezy. But those who had bought the first ones (like Jerry Pournell) thought
each new change was a miracle of modern technology. Mac owners could never
convince these guys that they already had all this and more. I used to hear
things like "I'm a computer expert and if anything were that much better, I
would know about it."

Apple went way too long wihtout significant change to the Apple II family and
the IIgs was a big dissapointment when it finally happened. The potential for
the Mac was squandered with business and underpowered design blunders
(Performa, LCII, LCIII etc).

Charlie Springer