Re: Big Text Machine press release

[philip@utstat.toronto.edu (Philip McDunnough)]

In article <1993May30.224839.4420@ornl.gov> jlcooper@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU (Jonathan L Cooper) writes:

[ ]
>
>Hey, Phil, don't knock the 8080!  my CompuColor II is still out here
>chugging along, and it's got what i consider to be some of the coolest
>computer games of all time.  (if i could program, i'd port them, but it's
>been years since i've written any code.)

Sorry, I didn't mean to demean the CompuColor II.I was thinking more along
the lines of the first "PC".
>
>>ago, etc...Why would someone want programs on a computer that has poor
>>graphics, no sound, basically poor mouse support, etc...
>
>because there are so many of them still in use.  there are people out
>there who are just not interested in upgrading to a gs.

I do realize this and as long as GS users keep buying this type of sw that's
what they will get.
> 
>>Now, to include support for both the IIe and the GS, via "fat binaries" 
>>would be much better. I'm really discouraged by this view that educational
>>programs should be written only for the IIe and below. It signs the end of
>>the GS for many and only serves in moving people faster towards the PC and/or
>>Amiga, both of which are far superior to an AppleII.
>
>as far as i'm concerned, the only possible redemption for the pc is to run
>some type of unix on it, since ms-dos is roughly as advanced as prodos 8. 
>i'm going to be very interested in seeing how many people buy nextstep for
>their pcs.

Well, you won't find a strong defence of the PC coming from me! Mind you the 
486's and up make very inexpensive Unix computers, and NEXTSTEP is quite
nice on them.
>
>the amiga has near zero visibility in the marketplace.  unless you're
>running a small tv station, you probably don't know too many people who
>own one.

I have 2. The Amiga is very visible in certain segments. For one thing, it 
has the best TeX around (AmigaTeX-> same person who did NeXT TeX). It has
built in sound. It multitasks... I do agree with you that the US market has
not been good to the Amiga, but the US is only one country. In reality, the 
US has adopted the PC as its computer, and the only possible competition to
the 486 might be the PowerPC, and I doubt they have the manufacturing capabilityto handle any market they might create.

>
>the next time i buy a machine, it'll probably be something powerpc based. 
>those have the potential to be interesting, and to correct the mistakes
>that were made on the mac.  who knows, someone might even write a gs
>emulator for it.

Well, my feeling on the PowerPC are as above. The 486 has won out and Intel 
simply has too much of a lead in manufacturing a higher end product for
a market which is thriving. Motorola doesn't have the capacity ( even though
as a company they are larger than Intel). They really blew it with the 68k
line, and as a consequence every cat and his dog is going to run stuff on
486's.

-- 
Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
philip@utstat.toronto.edu
[Where sheep may safely graze...]