9524a1c5   
   From: holdthistoo@umich.edu   
      
   In article ,   
    "Poop Dogg"  wrote:   
      
   > My first computer (after the TI-99) was a 128K Macintosh.  While   
   > I thought it was cool at the time, in retrospect it seriously   
   > handicapped me when I graduated to a "real" PC later.   
      
   As opposed to those "fake" Apple PCs...  of course, you remember that   
   Apple was one of the companies that brought the concept of "Personal   
   Computer" (your oft mis-used "PC" label) to the public, right? Of course   
   you do.  Now that we've got that out of the way, lets move on...   
      
   > Apple's closed architecture.  There was no purchasing third-party   
   > components, only official Apple components were available at   
   > inflated prices.  By the time Apple opened its precious computer   
   > to third-party stuff the PCs had already dominated the market.   
      
   You mean, like the third party external hard drives you could buy for   
   the Mac Plus?  Or the video cards for the Mac II?  Sure, Wintel third   
   party stuff was more plentiful, always has been... that's what happens   
   when there's no wuality assurance of standards to follow.  You get to   
   spend hours forcing your Wintel computer to play nice with those third   
   party devices, or you can buy a third party product for a Mac, plug it   
   in, install the drive, and it *just works*.  See "the whole widget" for   
   more information.   
      
   > "Closed" rchitecture is an understatement.  There was no way to   
   > even open the Macintosh case without a special tool.  I finally   
   > managed to jury rig an extended hex socket thingy, but not before   
   > I shelled out $200 for an authorized dealer to fix the power   
   > supply (my last PC power supply cost $20 and used just a regular   
   > screwdriver).  Once inside there were no expansion ports or any   
   > way to increase performance without purchasing a brand new Mac.   
      
   Yep, the closed architecture was a pain, but justified under the "whole   
   widget" concept.  Jobs and Woz figured people didn't *need* to monkey   
   with the guts of the machine, they just needed to use it.  Good thing   
   this isn't the 80s anymore; you can move on with the rest of the world   
   and crack open your box and replace almost everything inside of it with   
   new / better stuff.  The computer I'm typing this on (beige g3/233) was   
   bought new in 1995(6?), and since then has had three new hard drives   
   installed, two new video cards, new keyboards, new mice, new cd drive, a   
   tablet, a ton more memory, a firewire/usb card, and a new cpu (g4/400).   
   The only original components left in this thing are the motherboard, the   
   powr supply, cabling, and the case. I got rid of the floppy drive too -   
   needed to make room for another hard drive, and who uses something as   
   crappy and slow and unreliable as a floppy drive anymore?   
      
   > One thing that pissed me off was the inability to access the   
   > microprocessor.  Anyone who's used a DOS PC knows about the   
   > Debug feature that lets you send instructions directly to the   
   > microprocessor.  PCs turned out generations of whiz kids while   
   > Mac kids remained ignorant about computer programming.  I did   
   ...   
   > programming classes in assembly, Pascal, and C back in the   
   > early 1990s and really regretted not having gotten into it years   
   > before.   
      
   So you never touched the programming buttons before, huh? Dropped you   
   down into debugger mode, where all I knew how to do was hit the power   
   button and lose everything I was doing :p  Apparently you could do all   
   sorts of nifty things in debug mode, like display the contents of the   
   registers, do some simple programming, etc...  I was doing Pascal in the   
   90s too, as well as Fortran and BASIC...  all on a Mac.   
      
   > I helped my mother set up a newer Mac a few years ago.  I   
   > didn't like it one bit.  The interface resembled Windows, but   
   > was entirely different and uncomfortable.  The mouse was   
   > attached to the keyboard with a cord that was way too short so   
   > it limited how I could set up the computer.  And the mouse had   
   > only one button so I don't know how the hell Mac users get   
   > anything done without the extended selection interface found   
   > on PCs.   
      
   Because those of us that don't like one button mice go and spend a few   
   bucks and get a different one.  My wife and kids get along just fine   
   with a single button mouse.  I prefer my three-button trackball.  I do   
   admit, however, that the super-short cable on the hockey puck was a bad   
   idea.  By the way, that mouse was NOT attached to the keyboard.  As far   
   as I know (and I've been using Macs since the Plus) Apple has never sold   
   a mouse that was hardwired to the keyboard.  True, that might be the   
   only place you could plug it in, but it was never stuck there.   
      
   And as for the Windows "extended" interface...  if the interface is   
   designed right from the start, it doesn't need the funky singing and   
   dancing that your vaunted "extended" interface provides.  I really wish   
   Apple wouldn't have strayed so far from the System 7 interface, or even   
   the OS9 interface, but that's progress for you.   
      
   > So why do people still insist on using Macs?  Windows has its   
   > faults but it also runs the gazillion programs written for it.   
      
   Great, just what I need, a gazillion apps that will let someone else   
   hack into my system and / or infect me with viruses.  Those aren't   
   "faults", or even "security holes", those are "yawning chasms of   
   disaster".  How many anti-virus apps do you need or use on your Win box?   
   How many Windows Messenger spams have you gotten?  How many times has a   
   virus-infected email taken over your machine? My brother's had to wipe   
   his Win box and start from scratch three times because of viruses taking   
   over his machine and eating files, and all I can tell him is "get a Mac,   
   and you won't have to worry about that crap".   
      
   > It seems that the few useful programs available for Mac are   
   > all written by Microsoft anyway.   
      
   Really? Microsoft writes iTunes? And Photoshop? And Camino? And Safari?   
   And FileMaker? And OpenOffice? And GIMP? And Acrobat? And Final Cut Pro?   
   And Maya? And Logic Audio? And Dreamweaver? And Flash? And Apache? And   
   Samba?  And XFree86? And QMail? And GhostScript? And MPlayer?   
      
   Okay, I'm getting tired of typing in all those names...  but I hope you   
   get my point.  I don't use IE, I don't use Office, I don't use Outlook.   
   My machine is blissfully MS-free (save for Windows Media Player, which I   
   hardly ever have to use), and I like it that way.  My machine likes it   
   too.   
      
   --   
   "And as we drift along, I never fail |   "It's the information age --   
   to be astounded by the things we'll  |    everything gets saved   
   do for promises... and a song."      |    except for the human soul."   
   -- Dio, "All The Fools Sailed Away"  | Rev. Matthew Carey, Vision Temple   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)