Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!labrea!rocky!ali 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