<><><><>¢¢ WHY AM I DOWN ON IBMs?¢ by John Kasupski, WNYAUG¢ Reprinted from WNYAUG POKEY NL 11/91¢ by THE OL' HACKERS with THANKS!¢¢ A few weeks ago, while reading ¢ through the message bases on The ¢ Wizards Attic, I saw a message ¢ posted by an IBM user who was ¢ having trouble with a file ¢ compression utility. A few Atari ¢ ES users (myself included) left ¢ replies such as "That's what you get ¢ with an IBM" and so forth. The IBM ¢ user replied in kind. After¢ pointing out the difference in ¢ clock speeds between the Atari¢ and IBM CPUs, he declared that using¢ an Atari was "remaining in the dark ¢ ages of computing." He wanted to ¢ know why we were "so down on IBMs". ¢ I feel his question was valid.¢¢ I AM down on IBM products. I have no¢ desire to own an IBM or compatible.¢ I make no bones about it. But why,¢ indeed? To begin with, my¢ Atari system sits on a modest desk¢ and hutch in a small room off the ¢ kitchen. It's a HOME personal¢ computer, exactly what the Atari was¢ intended to be from the moment it ¢ was created: "The Atari 400 ¢ Personal Home Computer". The rest of ¢ the Atari ES computers followed in ¢ the footsteps of the 400 machines.¢ But, guess what the initials IBM¢ stand for? International Business¢ Machine. Not a home computer, not a¢ personal computer, a BUSINESS MACHINE¢ ¢ You know that Every single solitary¢ IBM computer ever sold was designed¢ for the business market, except the¢ PCJr., to which the buying public¢ quite properly extended about ¢ as much welcome as a fart in¢ church. Yes, an Intel 80386 ¢ is faster than my Atari's 6502, ¢ but if speed were the only¢ consideration I'd go out and buy a ¢ Cray mainframe and set it up in the ¢ basement, put a terminal in every¢ room in the house, do all¢ programming in ADA, and spend the¢ rest of my life making payments on¢ the darned thing. The IBM as a¢ home computer? Suppose you do ¢ purchase, say, an 80386 machine ¢ with a clock speed ¢ approaching Mach 1 and a price ¢ tag to match. It'll cost you ¢ around $2000, with monochrome ¢ monitor and NO graphics unless you ¢ shell out an extra $500 for another ¢ card to plug in to the motherboard. ¢ This is only the beginning. Every¢ time you want to connect ¢ something to your computer you'll¢ have to buy ANOTHER expensive add-on¢ card.¢ OH, you just want to get the ¢ basic system running? Not yet: ¢ The whole pile of hardware you¢ bought is WORTHLESS without a DOS!¢ That'll cost you another $100 or ¢ so. Never mind that MS-DOS is the¢ most user-hostile DOS ever ¢ invented, because soon you'll ¢ discover that your IBM MS DOS BASIC¢ does no syntax checking while¢ you're entering a program (you don't¢ find out about syntax errors until¢ you try to RUN your program). And¢ although you CAN set up strings¢ of ANY size, string FUNCTIONS ¢ won't work on strings that are ¢ longer than 255 characters. ¢ ¢ You don't want to program, you just ¢ want to do word processing? ¢ Better get some more memory first!¢ On my Atari, a GREAT word ¢ processor, TextPro 4.56xe, takes ¢ about 18K of RAM. (It's ¢ ShareWare, the requested donation is ¢ about $15.) On your new IBM, even a ¢ mediocre WP will eat up six times¢ that amount of RAM, while a good one¢ like Word Perfect (about $300) ¢ is so large it REQUIRES a hard¢ drive. Incidentally, IBM¢ dealers will SWEAR you CAN'T¢ connect a hard drive to an Atari¢ ES. The 40Mb hard drive now ¢ connected to my 800XL didn't believe ¢ them; neither should you. ¢ (EDITORS NOTE: He is right I too have¢ a 10 meg Hard Drive, as do most BBSs)¢¢ Another reason why an IBM does not¢ strike me as a practical choice for¢ a home computer: No matter how fast¢ my CPU is, the signals are still ¢ going to come through my modem¢ at 1200 bps, and I am still going¢ to type at the same 20-30 WPM that I¢ always type at. Why pay through the¢ nose for a CPU that is going to¢ spend half of its cycles sitting¢ idle, waiting for me to do ¢ something?¢¢ But that's only the hardware half¢ of the story. What about software?¢ Why is the manual for MS-DOS as¢ thick and heavy as a telephone¢ pole-and about as easy to understand?¢ The biggest manual I've seen for an¢ Atari software product is for Kyan¢ PASCAL (a complete programming¢ environment).¢¢ It explains how to write and compile¢ PASCAL source, how to use the KIX¢ Environment, the whole ball of wax.¢ On an IBM you need a manual twice¢ that size just for the DOS alone¢ (you can forget about using your¢ IBM until you've absorbed the¢ manual). On an Atari, you can read¢ through a few pages of¢ documentation and start being¢ productive. Why? Because the¢ computer was intended for home¢ personal use, so the software¢ packages are geared to the home¢ personal computer user. You can¢ teach yourself to apply Atari¢ software. Business schools charge¢ money to teach you how to use the¢ IBM. Come to think of it,¢ all this got started with an IBM¢ user having a problem using a file¢ compression utility. I've never had¢ any problem with the Atari, in fact¢ I have as much fun running the¢ UNARC utility as I do using the¢ files I UNARC. The very first time¢ I called a BBS, I needed to upload¢ to improve my status. I logged off¢ the board and proceeded to ARC some¢ files, successfully, on the first¢ try. I uploaded the next day. A¢ few days later I called again and¢ downloaded an ARC file. I¢ successfully UNARCed the file on¢ the first try. It was an Atari¢ board running BBS Express ¢ Professional. Some time later I¢ called an IBM board that was¢ running WWIV. I couldn't even¢ FIND the files databases, let¢ alone attempt to upload or download¢ anything. I couldn't even get the¢ user help files to capture those!¢ I decided that if this was a¢ sample of what IBM software¢ was like, I wanted no part of it. ¢ Nothing in my experience since,¢ including actually using an IBM¢ compatible, has done anything to¢ change my mind.¢¢ That's why I'm down on IBMs. I won't¢ go so far as to say that I wouldn't¢ take an IBM machine if someone¢ offered it to me for free, because I¢ would. ¢¢ But, I'd immediately sell it so I¢ could buy more Atari stuff - like¢ a bigger memory upgrade, or a 2400¢ bps modem, or a second phone line so¢ I could put up a BBS, or...well,¢ the wish list goes on and on,¢ but it will never include an IBM. ¢ The REAL "Dark Ages Of ¢ Computing" began when IBM managed to¢ permeate the business market with¢ its products, which allowed IBM ¢ to convince a large segment the ¢ public that IBMs were the ONLY¢ computers worth buying. Never ¢ mind that these machines don't¢ belong in the home environment to¢ begin with: The corporate culture¢ of IBM execs, replete with two-¢ hour long, three-martini lunches,¢ has a price. Somebody has to pay¢ for it, and it may as well be the¢ buying public! I, for one, am not ¢ fooled. I'll buy my own lunch, and¢ my own home computer - which, ¢ until they start moving animals ¢ in pairs to Cape Canaveral, will¢ be an Atari ES!(8 BIT MICRO)¢¢ OL' HACKERS EDITORS NOTE:¢ No way could I have said it better***¢ NOW BE VERY HAPPY THAT YOU WERE SMART¢ ENOUGH TO BUY AND STICK WITH THE 8BIT¢¢ <><><> END <><><> ¢¢
