Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!genrad!twm From: twm@genrad.UUCP (Tim W. Mattox) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Apple Gets Greedier (Read it and Weep!) Message-ID: <11131@genrad.UUCP> Date: 20 Sep 88 17:36:29 GMT References: <10093@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <1258@aucs.UUCP> Reply-To: twm@genrad.UUCP (Tim W. Mattox) Distribution: na Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass. Lines: 44 In article <1258@aucs.UUCP> peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) writes: >> Hm. I find that the difference between our Macintosh and PC users is, >> primarily, how much support they need after the initial contact.... >I find the number of questions I am asked generally has nothing to do with >whether the machine is a Mac or a PC. It depends on the user. I agree. However, to imply that it is easier for a new user to learn a command-line driven environment opposed to an icon based environment seems a bit ridiculous. When I upgraded to an SE, I let my parents use my Mac Plus. With only minimal instruction, both were producing documents(MacWrite) and spreadsheets(Excel). We also have an old Apple II+. Neither parent got into it at all. Granted the software base is not as big for the II+ as for a PC but that was about the only difference and no the real problem. The command-line driven II+ made just getting started a fairly big effort. Additionally, my dad has some PC's at work which he was shown how to use. Needless to say, it took the Mac to really get a non-user into the computer world. >> Second, I find that, now that I have fonts and graphics, I can't >> live without them. >> I've found that if you give people features and the features are easy to >> access, they'll use them. >Again, I agree... I think about everyone would agree to this. > ...but if the users are new to computers they don't really >appreciate what one system will give you that another one won't. If they've >never had a computer before, a PC will be like gold to them. Granted, if >they got as Mac, they could certainly make use of all the nice graphics >and fonts (and would never go back to a PC once they had a Mac) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sure so get an IBM and then kick yourself a year or two later when you do get exposed to other systems. A person does not know sh*t so why not sell him sh*t. Sounds good to me. >Its even harder when their boss tells them "it's got to be IBM compatible" >because all his friends, colleagues, neighbours, first cousins, etc. have >IBM compatibles... Now that the Macs are becoming IBM compatible a lot of people are wondering what the compatibility is good for. Gee, I wish that I could run Lotus instead of Excel, it's soooooo powerful 8-). Seriously, if it just gets more people to try a Mac, then I think it is a positive move.