NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/os/mswindo/advocacy/2818

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-19 | 3.4 KB

Xref: sparky comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:2818 comp.sys.mac.advocacy:2772
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Path: sparky!uunet!newsgate.watson.ibm.com!news.ans.net!cmcl2!psinntp!psinntp!cubetech.com!imladris!andrew
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Macintosh bigots
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 05:23:11 GMT
Lines: 61

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>
>    One thing I deleted in this argument was that PCs can't
>read Mac disks.  Untrue, there is a PD program that reads mac disks.
>
>> |>
>> |> Comparing a Q950 w/ a 486DX/50 isn't really good, because a Q950 is set
>> |> up to compete against workstations, while the 486 system is set up
>> |> to do the stuff slower boxes do but faster (you could by the Q950
>> |> for the smaller jobs, but why would you?).  Also, because of the shortage
>> |> of Q950s right now, the price is higher because of demand.
>
>    I have used a Quadra 700, not 950 but I don't see how it was
>so fast.  I couldn't multitask very well and that is quite important in
>the "workstation" market.  No one is going to be very impressed with
>a 10 grand machine that can't even copy disks in the background very well.
>At least my puny 486-33 can do that a lot better than any Quadra can.

copy disks copy disks copy disks copy disks copy disks copy disks

Every time someone bashes Macintosh multitasking, they always start
with copying disks first.

How many disks do you copy a day?  If you want to copy a lot of disks,
get a damn disk-copying machine.  Disk-copying machines are designed
to copy disks.  Workstations are designed to do work.  If your work is
copying disks, then you need a disk-copying machine and not a
workstation.

Note, while I'm not someone who defends Macintosh multitasking, we
don't need stupid benchmarks and comparisons like how well it can copy
disks.

>    But Unix stations have the software that most people who need
>a workstation require.  For doing 3D modeling, one is going to want
>a Sparc, not a Quadra.  If you have a small brain like the people at
>Byte Magazine, then workstations are primarily used for Desk Top Publishing
>(yea right) and Cad.  While the Cad is true, most Workstations i have
>seen are doing modeling, morphing, and other heavy calculating.  If I
>ran a business and was doing desktop publishing then a Mac would be my
>first choice without a doubt but Byte weighed DTP and Cad equally which
>is absurd.

Well, first of all, if you want to do 3D modeling, you'll probably
pick up an SGi box and not a Sun.  SGi's just eat everything else for
breakfast when it comes to 3D graphics.

You can use a workstation for anything you want.  But you can't do a
lot of things on most workstations because there is nothing but
engineering and technical applications available for them except for a
very, very limited amount of productivity or "business" apps.  What is
the difference between a Quadra with AU/X and a SPARCstation?  Or,
what's the difference between a NeXT workstation and a SPARCstation.
Well, I and a lot of people can get a lot of work done on my NeXT or
on a Quadra that you can't do on a Sun.  Because you cant do it on a
Sun, or DEC, or HP, or IBM workstation (due to lack of any software
for that task) you say that it's not part of the workstation
definition.


andrew