Jeremy Derr wrote:
>In the good old days, when RAM cost hundreds of $$'s per MB, and no one >had more than 2 or 4MB, this was the case. You had an extremely finite >amount of RAM (sometimes less than 1MB). I learned programming on a >Commodore 64. I had to make my entire program fit inside 64K of RAM >(luckily, the C64 didn't have much in the way of OS overhead.... it >didn't really even have one!). And maybe I had enough cash to upgrade my >computer to more RAM, but chances are that the people who want to use my >app won't be able to afford it. Nowadays....... RAM is cheap, so people >don't optimize their code the way they used to. > >That said..... no amount of optimization will ever fit even a >semi-modern web browser into 64k of RAM. > >Another great example of time marching on... some softwares (or >hardwares) require something new, that didn't even exist a year or so >ago. Great example: the math co-processor, aka the FPU. I spent more >than $10,000 on my original Mac setup (when I say original, I mean >original; 1984). A few years later, Photoshop came out........... and it >required this new gizmo called an FPU. I could have spent several >thousand more in trying (in futility, I later learned) an FPU into my >beloved Mac. Or I could just buy a Mac IIci. So, I sold my Mac for >something like $7000, and bought a Mac IIci. > >Time marches on.... > >Networking becomes all the craze, and desktop publishing gets bigger. >Laser printers had been around for a while, but had been a novelty >pretty much since their inception (not to mention that, at the time, >impact printers had them beat on quality). Sharing files with other >computers? But my files were too big to fit on a floppy...... so we all >plopped down for these things called ethernet cards (token ring). And we >all quickly learned that if we turned off any one computer in the ring, >the whole network went down. The printer was a network printer (will >marvels never cease!) and when the network went down, because one >computer was off, we couldn't print. Suck... > >So we all ran out and bought different ethernet cards; this wild new >thing called 10baseT, and it uses phone cabling! Oh wait, no it >doesn't.... there's more pins on this damned thing.... and OH CRAP!!! >The printer is token ring only! Do we buy a new one (the damned thing >cost $15,000 to begin with) or.... then we learned about network bridges. > >Fast forward to today.... I do pretty much the same kind of graphic >design work I did back then, only now I do color retouching (didn't have >to do that, then; my screen was black and white, and I assigned colors >to jobs and told the print bureau what they were.... I didn't see it in >color until I got the final product). Color monitor is kind of >necessary, but since it wasn't back then, and it was cheaper to get a >computer with a Black & White card, that's how I got mine (well, 16 >grayscales, not really black and white, per se). > >The IIci (if given a color graphics card, which most have) does pretty >much everything I do now; graphic layout, email, and web browsing. By >your logic, I should just stick with that. I didn't, I bought a >PowerBook G4. Why? > >Have you ever color retouched on a IIci? If you think downloading huge >files on a 28.8 modem is slow, you ain't seen nuttin' yet...... if >downloading a 5MB file on a 28.8 is a "make yourself a sandwich" >operation, a simple gaussian blur on a IIci is a "take a 3 day weekend" >operation. The serial ports on a IIci (IIRC) only support up to 14.4 >anyway, so on the internet, I'd be kind of screwed. I could go ethernet >on my cable modem, but DHCP didn't exist back then, and MacTCP is a >horrible DHCP citizen. I don't believe that a IIci supports Open >Transport, but I haven't tried. > >I got a PowerBook G4 because of time; faster internet access, faster web >page rendering, faster graphic layout, faster.... you get the point. >Every minute I'm waiting on my computer, that's money I could be losing. > >"My competitors only take 5 billable hours to do a job that takes me 16" >is not a viable marketing strategy for a freelance graphic designer... Thanks Jeremy for your very complete explanation. I appreciate your time and effort. What you say makes absolute sense ... for the professional user. For the home user however, the situation is, and I think I'm like many, many others, that I've spent enough money on computer hardware, and I'm not an endless source of cash. I also think that starting with the Bondi Blue iMac that computers from a hardware viewpoint have enough power to do pretty much what the home user is going to do. Which I think is Internet, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, and Photography. Peter Norton in 1997 writes that as far as the home market is concerned Intel (and by extension Motorola) has got itself in a pickle because it produces processors that can easily do what most home users need to do. Hence home users should not need to upgrade. The computer has evolved to a state entirely satisfactory for most of their needs. Bad news for Intel and Motorola. Perhaps what we'll be seeing is a division in the computer industry. One set of hardware and software for home users and another set for the pro market. This is already happening on the Windows platform. You now have XP Professional and XP Home. You are right about the older computers. While entirely satisfactory for things like word processing, drawing, spreadsheets and databases they were just too slow for photographic work. But today's computers are different. Entirely satisfactory for that as well. So the consumer feels the hardware has evolved, and feels a resentment if someone is going to make that hardware obsolete for the sake of, what he sees as, a few minor new features. I was in Staples the other day and met the Canon representative. She told me that what she's getting from people coming into the store is that they are not all that interested in buying a new computer, but what they really want is stuff that will work with their existing machine. That should include internet. Cheers Uncle George P.S. There is an exception for the home user. If you want to do Video Editing you need the most powerful machine you can get your hands on. But movie making and editing may be a bit too steep a gradient for most ordinary folks. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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