Re: Amelio's ouster

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article GUDATH@EZINFO.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH (Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat) writes...

>Let's do some Q&A:
>
>>     How about this instead: Can the Mac do wavetable music synthesis?
>
>Yes, Inside Macintosh: Sound, page 2-8

    That is a rather murky defination of "wavetable synthesis". Simply
having a DAC does not make a music synthesizer, and if you want to see
examples of how the term is loosely used, you can find references of
the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh II as having wavetable synthesizers
built-in (all they have is a crummy 4 voice DAC).

    Have you ever heard a Roland Sound Canvas, Yamaha XG, AWE-32,
Gravis or several other wavetable boards with chorus and reverb
effects?

>> Can you do preemptive multitasking? Do you have multiple choices for
>
>No
>
>> OSes?
>
>Fortunately not, see below

    Being locked into one OS is a fortunate thing? Since when is lack of
choice and freedom a good thing? (having an OS that doesn't even support
true multitasking and forces you to do _everything_ with mouse, including
something as simple as 'empty trash' with no keyboard shortcuts available,
is not something I'd like to be stuck with 100% of the time).

    The MacOS (and the Macintosh itself) don't let the user have control,
the machine and software won't let you. It's like a parent who takes away
potentially dangerous tools from a child so they won't get hurt, like a
pair of metal scissors replaced with plastic ones. This is good as the
child is young and still learning, but what about when they grow up?
The Mac is the equivalent of giving a full-grown and mature adult a pair
of plastic scissors to work with. I rather have the metal pair, which 
while I could potentially get hurt with and does require care, gives me 
the power to be more productive.

>>Can you play complex game software? (remakes of late 70 and early
>
>Yes

    What, Marathon II and Wolf 3-D? ;) Here's a suggestion, why not visit
http://www.happypuppy.com, which is a good place to download (and learn
about) the latest and most popular games for the IBM and Macintosh. Each
time I've looked, all the Mac games are simple little shoot-em-ups remakes
of Asteriods, Space Invaders, Defender and Tetris clones, with the IBM
games being things that rival games on the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation.

    This has been my observation (and not only from this site, but looking
in software stores, catalogs and even Mac game demos on the machine itself)
so if I'm off or things recently changed, I would like to be enlightened.

>> full-screen video on low-end models? (hint: processing speed). Can you
>
>Well, Mitchell, low-end Macs start where your high-end PCs end..

    Well, perhaps it's just me then, who finds a low-end P75 (or even my
15 MHz IIgs ;) more responsive and quicker than most high end PowerPC Macs.

>> exit your windowing/icon environment when it just gets in the way? Can
>
>Well, this is an embarassing feature. I would call it emergency exit. And I
>surely wouldn't have mentioned it because you earlier stated that, not
>quoting, "the PCs are no longer machines you have to throw obnoxious 
>commands at".

    Game software is one case where a windows environment is completely out
of place, and I don't recall having to type in obscure commands while in the
middle of playing those games. :)

>> you pop in new CPU's or motherboards when you want to upgrade?
>
>Yes, sir.

    How, if the port openings do not match on different cases? Besides
which, I don't believe Apple sells motherboards and chips you can buy
ans install yourself (you have to bring in your system to an authorized
dealer and have them do the swap at a hefty cost, assuming there is a
motherboard that can fit in your particular case). Isn't it also nice
to know Apple will void your warranty if you attempt to install more
memory or a hardrive yourself in your newly purchased Macintosh?

>One last note about the variety of OSes. What you buy with a Mac is a 
>complete solution, it's a hardware/software bundle that you either like 
>as is or watch elsewhere for alternate offerings.

    Yes, it's about not having any choices.

>Same with interrupts and what else you have mentioned. It's not fear but the
>pure lack of necessity for having to deal with your computer on such a level.
>It's great when you can talk with your friends about the latest findings in
>IRQ priorities, but I better get my work done. From the users point, it's
>none of my business.

    Once again, no choices, not being able to configure and tweak the
machine to your likings (the machine being in control rather than you).
It also encourages the user to be ignorant and unaware of how things
work, which may sound fine, but what happens when there is a problem
and you don't know how to fix it?

>And that's the whole point. It doesn't count how much Mhz you have in the 
>box, how many keys on the keyboard and what bandwidth in the SCSI bus. 
>It's how productive a machine makes you.

    I agree, and when you cannot do more than one task at a time (true
multitasking) or the machine gets in the way of being productive because
there are no short-cuts and only _one_ way to do things (which may be
productive for one person, but not necessarily all people) is it not
as productive as you may think.

>And that's why people are still using Apple II computers.

    No arguement there, when I need to type something up quickly or
be productive, my Apple IIgs is still my computer of choice (ironically
I'm using it right now to type on while debating features of the Mac
and IBM ;). And of course, had Apple updated the IIgs, you can bet 
I'd bet arguing the merits over running an Apple IIgs rather than the
Mac or PC (which while I may have a preference for one over the other,
I have no fondness for either when it really comes down to it).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca