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From: spector@acf3.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Macintosh II not Macintosh ][
Message-ID: <170011@acf3.NYU.EDU>
Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 20:24:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: acf3.170011
Posted: Mon Jul  6 20:24:00 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jul-87 02:12:19 EDT
References: <80@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 79


>An operating system that forces me to sit and "twiddle my thumbs"
>(or anything equally silly, such as "look through the TV guide," 
>"go bother the cat," "go get another can of pepsi," etc) while 
>printing (or anything else you might want to do on your computer,
>such as "compiling," "transferring a file," "ray tracing," etc)
>just cannot be LIGHTYEARS ahead of Unix. At best it is five years
>behind. 
>
>>Despite all of this hype about Unix on 
>>Macintosh most "real"(*) computer users have no use for Unix...
>
>I am no fan of Unix but I prefer Unix over the Macintosh's OS any day.
>Even if the Mac OS came wrapped in a 25 Mhz 68020 and the Unix on a 
>wimpy 750. The multitasking Unix would still more productive. 
>
>Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu

Yeah, I suppose you're right.  Command line interfaces, commands like
'rm', 'ls', 'mv', i-nodes, and useful, full featured applications such
as 'bc' are much more useful than a visual interface and Microsoft Excel on 
a Macintosh.   :-)
 
Seriously, multitasking would be a nice addition to the Macintosh
evironment, but its absence doesn't mean that people (yes, "real" people)
cannot get more use out of a Macintosh than out of a Unix box.
Multitasking will be here soon enough though...its better that Apple (and every 
one else) has gotten most of the User Interface issues out of the way first.
Not that there aren't going to be a lot of broken bits when Juggler, or whatever
it'll be called when Apple releases it, comes out but those things will be
fixable.  Bad user interface design, poorly thought out applications, badly
written manuals and other similar nasties are harder to fix in the long run.

Granted, that if you are developing large software systems, and have to 
do large numbers of compilations, multitasking is nice..but I (and hundreds of
other folk) have developed software without it.  Waiting for printing isn't a
major hassle(it gives me a chance to make another pot o'coffee), and if it is...
buy a print spooler -- cost ya less than $100 (less than half the cost of a 
good compiler).

In its current form, Unix is not a OS for the masses, no matter how
often people try to make it one by stating that it is.  It's a programmer's
environment. (Some noble attempts have been/are being made tho --i.e. SunWindows
 X, et al..)

In my other hat as a professional consultant, I deal with people 
("real computer users" NOT programmers!) who don't have the time to WASTE 
learning how to use a computer.  Remember, most of the people who USE
computers are not programmers.
In fact, in the real world, where people have to make money, run businesses, 
save lives, et al (not Universities where you and I work -- the ultimate in 
non real-world environments) if you tried to put Unix boxes in someones' office 
and then said "OK - Here's your computer, all you have to know to use it is in 
these 4 or 5 three inch thick manuals", you'd be lucky if you weren't run outta 
town on a rail!  In fact the growing complexity of command line oriented 
personal computers (read: MS-DOS machines) is leading to incredible problems in
support and training.  'wonder why IBM is trying to make the PS/2's look like
small beige (and now "Platinum") boxes?


As for productivity, there are many, many more things one can do
with a Macintosh than any Unix system. For starters, take a look at Excel, MORE,
Word, MacWrite, MacPaint, Illustrator, PageMaker, Express, MacDraw, etc, 
and so on.



David HM Spector
Senior Systems Programmer
Academic Computing Center
Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University
SPECTOR@NYU.EDU
...!{seismo,allegra,inhp4}!cmcl2!spector

Disclaimer:  I have a Macintosh, I use one all day, every day, in fact I 
couldn't start my day without it. In addition, I write Macintosh software,
and am obviously VERY biased towards the little critters.  Despite all that
I try to be completely objective in discussions such as this.  ;-)
*Oh, yeah.  These are MY opinions, and my employer don't know nuthin about it.