John Korb realizes:

>       The current Intel IBM-PC hardware just can't handle all the
>       appliance applications that users want to put on it.

And concludes:

> Maybe I'm all wet, but it seems to me that it won't be too many years and
> the problems of PC administration that we have at the office are going to
> reach the home and then the "appliance" users will force the companies that
> produce PC products for the home to come up with something that the average
> Joe on the street can administer without giving up too much Monday Night
> Football - something with one low-maintenance server and several
> no-maintenance thin clients (basically, GUI terminals).
>
> What do you think?

You are definately *not* all wet. I think the article Wirt originally
posted gave a hint of the future:

>     Apple Computer's iMac was really the first
>     high-profile consumer computer to
>     accentuate the Internet connection, adding
>     the prefix "i" to the Mac and designing the
>     box so setting up a Net connection is as easy
>     as possible.

Ease of use has always been a hallmark of the Macintosh. Understand, I
was weaned on CP/M and grew up on MS-DOS. I thought Windows was a great
advance. Then in 1990 I bought a Mac IIcx for my wife, a non-PC person,
so she could use it without having to ask me for too much help. I knew
it was easy to use because I'd seen them at work. (I also figured if I
didn't know anything about it, she couldn't ask me for help. ;-)

Then I started using it, and you know what? That old box now has
everything on it: a scanner, an external CD-ROM drive (it was built
before there were such things), a second monitor at times (true plug 'n'
play is great that way), a second hard drive (external), an external Zip
drive, a joystick, a modem, stereo speakers (driven by the on-board
stereo chip, no need to add a sound card), networked HP inkjet printer,
and occasionally a video camera. And all this runs *at the same time* on
a Mac built almost *10* years ago (the IIcx came out in 1989) with *no*
problems!!

I have since purchased a Mac clone (StarMax, PowerPC 604e) which can do
all this and more, and acts as a server to the IIcx as well. When my son
comes home from college he plugs in his PowerBook to our little network,
and has access to all the programs and the printer on the network, too.
And all of this happened prior to Apple putting USB in a single Mac,
which they are now doing. I know people who have all the stuff your
friend can't run on his PC, John, happily, productively, co-existing on
their Macs.

IMO the problem is *not* a lack of technology, either in hardware or OS.
It's simply a lack of awareness as to what's out there. You want a true
consumer appliance computer? Buy a Macintosh. We love ours. :-D

And, oh yes, you can run Windows NT on it, Denys, should you need to.
:-)

But then, I don't need to. ;-)

Patrick, wishing I could use my Mac at work -- they won't let me :-(
--
Patrick Santucci
Technical Services Systems Programmer
KVI, a division of Seabury & Smith, Inc.
Visit our site! http://www.kvi-ins.com
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"If they try to rush me, I always say, 'I've only got
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