Re: What computer would you buy to replace your //* ?

[jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner)]

cust_ts@kruuna.Helsinki.FI (Tero Sand) writes:

>In article <54646@sophia.inria.fr> glaurent@aye.inria.fr (Guillaume Laurent) writes:
>>You can understand a lot of things by just looking at the contents of system
>>directories. On a mac, what you see with the Finder may have nothing to do with
>>the real files, because Apple's policy is : "let's not tell the user he's
>>sitting in front of a computer".Try to boot under anything else than the Finder
>>on a mac, it a real pain to do...  

>You are being totally unrealistic.  Throw a complete computer neophyte
>in front of an Unix system and he won't be able to do anything.  The
>same is probably true for a Mac, btw, regardless of what Apple says -
>there might be differences in how much you have to explain, but that's a
>different issue. 

We're not talking about computer neophytes here, we're talking about
you and I and what computer we'd get next.  I've used lots of
different machines, and most Unix boxes allow you to do a lot more
things with them with only a text editor such as vi, emacs, or even
ed, that you could do with a stock Mac or PC.  At least most Unix
machines still come with a C compiler (and you can get gcc if they
don't).

-----------------------------

Now, what I would do if/when I decide to get a brand new computer is
wait until next year when the Power PC comes out.  I realize you can
wait forever until the greatest and latest high-tech stuff comes out,
but you can also waste a lot of cash on the current "cool machine".  I
don't consider a 486 DX/66 a "cool machine"--if I had one, though, it
would be running some version of unix.

The reason I'd wait for Power PC is because I believe we are finally
going to see a machine that has the horsepower I can live with at a
price I can afford for a home machine.  I use and develop software on
workstations at work and I really wouldn't buy a machine for home that
couldn't do what they can do.  But I also can't afford a computer that
goes for $10000 or more.  Power PC is going to be in the $2000
ballpark, yet it will have the speed to run 3-D graphics with a big
screen (1280x1024 or 1152x900) and will also run Unix (Solaris at
least).  Yet, I'll still be able to run Mac and Windoze programs if I
feel like shooting myself.  Of course, big screens will still cost
$2-3k.

Perhaps, if power pc is a marketing hit, the competition will bring us
more power and lower prices.  The PC 486/Pentium crowd has got way too
much historical baggage and crap (ISA busses, dumb video card
standards, kludges here, there, and everywhere) for my liking.  They
are always stuck with being compatible with something from the recent
past that just isn't worth being compatible with anymore.  I say out
with the old and in with the new.

PS:  Though I don't like this being-compatible-with-the-past stuff,
I'd kind of like to write a IIgs emulator for a fast Unix box
someday... :)

-- 
Jerry Penner   jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca   or   jjp@myrias.ab.ca