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From: ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Macintosh II not Macintosh ][
Message-ID: <411@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Sat, 11-Jul-87 12:48:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocky.411
Posted: Sat Jul 11 12:48:19 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 16:42:53 EDT
References: <80@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu> <170011@acf3.NYU.EDU> <1282@apple.UUCP>
Reply-To: ali@rocky.UUCP (Ali Ozer)
Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department
Lines: 35

In article <1282@apple.UUCP> bc@apple.UUCP (Bill Coderre) writes:
>Assuming you have a Mac II and a Laserwriter for development, 
>... if the only thing you need is background printing,
>then get LaserSpool or equivalent, and the cheeepest secondhand mac
>that will run it.

Hmm --- Sure the Mac can multitask, all you need is a second processor!
And if you need more and more programs running concurrently, you
just buy more and more cheap secondhand Macs...

Ok, I agree that if you've got a Mac II and a LW, you probably are rich 
enough to spend some more on a cheap secondhand Mac and be able to print
stuff in the background. In a business environment where the Mac II
is being used a lot, say, this would probably be a necessary solution.
It's silly to have a $5000 68020/68881 machine sit there and spend 10
minutes spooling to the printer. 

This of course goes back to the original point --- That the Mac OS
is not "LIGHTYEARS" ahead of Unix --- In it's present form, it's not
even a good enough OS for the Mac II. Printing in the background is
a simple operation that takes a few percent of CPU, and it shouldn't
require a whole new machine to perform. 

>Chances are, this config will be cheaper than some
>UN*X boxes that I would care to mention, with equivalent
>capabilities. ... (I'm not kidding. This is a cost-effective solution.)

Cost effective! The point is that, when you buy a Unix machine (or 
some other machine that multitasks, such as the $600 Amiga 500), you get
the capability to print in the background without paying an extra cent.
A lot of the 68000/68020 hardware out there has got the horsepower to
print in the background --- whether you can or not just depends on how smart 
your OS is.

Ali, ali@rocky.stanford.edu