In a message dated 96-09-27 14:05:56 EDT, [log in to unmask] (F. Alfredo
Rego) writes:
<< Oops, I am using the word "think" too much. This is a serious problem.
Independent thinkers are obsolete. I think you are one of the few left.
May God take good care of you. Fortunately, there is a precedent in
Galileo, who did whatever the Church told him to do, but still uttered (in
a subtle way), "regardless of what the majority believes, the Earth
moves..." (or words to that effect).
Just an idle thought, inspired by a conversation I had this morning (which
was the fuel that got ignited with Tony's spark):
"Why are you buying a PC instead of a Mac?"
"Because there are more PCs."
"Really? Not because PCs are BETTER than Macs?"
"Really; I know that Macs are better than PCs, but that's not the point."
Interesting. I would have felt much better had the person said, with
passion, that PCs are better than Macs. I would have also respected the
person much more.
Oh, well...
>>
Since Alfredo would repost selected portions of my answer to him, I thought I
would skip the middleman and just post the complete thing to the list.
Alfredo, your latest post comes frighteningly close to being insulting to
many, so I feel that I must respond. I understand that you and some others
swear by Apple and at Microsoft. I fully realize it is chic, fashionable and
enlightened to do this but it is counterproductive. It would serve the users
far better if one of you Macevangelists would take the time to respond to me,
-if others are interested that is OK too- about the following issues which
are of concern to me. Do not give me rhetoric, give me facts.
1) How is using a Mac is going to make my task of connecting to an HP 3000
and to an IMAGE/SQL database easier, better, cheaper and faster?
2) Please tell me how using a Mac is going to make my tasks of word
processing, web page authoring, and other similar document-centric tasks
easier, better, cheaper and faster?
3) Explain to me how Macs, which do not have preemptive multitasking, will
make it easier for me to upload large files to my HP 9000 from my CD on my NT
Server while I am searching for information on the Internet and modifying my
web page and running a compile/prep cycle on my HP 3000 (This is what was
happening on my PC yesterday, a regular day)?
4) Explain to me how a MacOS notebook would serve me better as a notebook
when I can eject my Compaq from its docking station here at my office where
it is connected to my network via the docking station’s ethernet card, and I
can slip in my Xircom 10/100 Ethernet PC-Card at a customer site in town and
have immediate access to the network at 100mbps, yes 100mbps. My notebook
recognizes, automatically, the printers on my network, and the printers at
the customer’s network and makes the adjustments without being told.
5) Explain to me how using a Mac will make accessing my HP 3000, my HP 9000,
my e-mail, the Internet, my customer sites, my office when I travel, and our
parent site in Germany easier than just clicking on a few buttons as I do
now.
6) Explain to me how a Mac will make my flight simulator run so much better I
will swear I was in a real F/A-18c pulling 9Gs.
How will a Mac do all of the above so much better, easier and faster that it
will make what I use now look like a hammer and chisel?
Galileo believed in, and supported the newly-postulated Copernican
heliocentric system whereby the planets revolved around the Sun. He wrote a
book comparing the Copernican system to the Ptolemaic heliostatic system
whereby the Sun, along with the other planets revolved around the Earth in a
complicated dance, also known as the Aristotelian system. Pope Urban VIII,
enthused by the book at first, was later misled by a few of his cardinals
into changing his mind. In the Spring of 1633, Galileo was ?judged? by the
inquisition and forced to recant his beliefs. He was under house arrest for
the next 8 years until his death. My Britannica CD, running on Windows 95,
does not mention the comment attributed to him although I remember it from
other sources. In 1687, Isaac Newton published his book, Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy) and that was the end of the Ptolemaic or Aristotelian system.
I leave it up to you to decide whether you fit the role of a cardinal of the
inquisition trying to defend an old, mythical and non-longer tenable
position. Granted, Macs may have been better in the past, but this is no
longer true. I have to support Macs at clients sites, and I find them
inferior to PCs running Windows 95. The user interface is kludgy at best and
non-intuitive, the graphics are cartoonishly childish and the one-button
mouse drives me bonkers (all things considered, I would rather have a 5
button mouse, but 2 or three is better than one.). The lack of preemptive
multitasking is very painful and the overall performance reminds me of
molasses in February in Winnipeg. The Macs crash with wild abandon and
freeze as if glanced upon by Medusa. In contrast, a Compaq Deskpro or HP
Vectra running Win 95 with SP1 and 16MB or Windows NT 4.0 is a thing of
beauty. Smooth as silk. Slap on Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape Navigator
3.0 Gold and it is super. Turn me loose with Office 95 Pro and Reflection
5.1 and I get my work DONE. And soon, Office 97! The only good use I have
for Macs is for a pair of them as bookends and the one-button mouse as a very
flimsy hammer. Sorry to destroy your Aristotelian view of personal computing
and please, save your inquisitional flames, you are wasting your time with
me. I know Macs are now inferior to PCs with Windows 95 or NT. Maybe if
Apple spent more time on Copland and less time on moaning (almost rhymes),
they could turn that around, but I doubt it.
As for the few of you who are scared of moving from Windows 3.x to 95, shed
your fears, as they are groundless. If you have *real* questions and issues,
e-mail me directly, I will do my best to help you. But save your old wives
tales, I have heard them all and they are all just that, old wives tales.
Windows 95 is much superior to Windows 3.x, and NT 4.0 is even better.
At Interex, pardon me, HP World 97, I gave a talk on Windows 95. I scheduled
it on Thursday 8:00 AM, after the party (I did not want anybody to come, I
needed sleep.) I was in a room with a capacity of 204. The room was full, I
could not see a single vacant seat. People were sitting on the floor in the
aisles and all the way around the back. We talked Win95 and exploded all the
myths about it. I asked how many were on 95, most of the hands went up.
When I asked how many were on Mac, 6 hardy souls raised their hands. When I
asked how many people worked for companies where Windows 95 was forbidden by
executive edict, 3 people raised their hands, two of them from the same
company. They were going to change that!
So Alfredo, quit being so offensive. If folks do not share your beliefs,
that does not make them mindless robots. Maybe your Aristotelian beliefs
need an update (or a service pack :-> ) .
Kind, no, kindest regards. As always.
Denys. . .
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