From: Robert MacKimmie <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 97 18:46:47 -0700 Subject: Re: IBM versus Macintosh Reply-To: [email protected]
>Question: Macintosh -vs.- Wintel Operating Systems are equivalent to political and religious preferences - you are likely born into them or "have discovered" one or are "converted" to one by work dictates or recreation/pleasure. Being in a mixed environment during this past year, my desktop has included (at the same time) SUN UNIX, Microsoft NT, Win95, Mac 7.6, Mac 8.0 PPC, NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP/Intel and Rhapsody. I can state across the board that the biggest factor in productivity and/or system preference seems to be what OS people presently use. Getting any individual to change OS can be like trying to get a mule to drink a Mai Tai out of fancy fruit and paper umbrella accented bar glass with a long straw. Nobody likes to use anything other than what they have been using. Prying "cold dead fingers off the keyboard" is universal for most everybody, regardless of what OS they use. The interesting part of the Macintosh story, is that Apple Computer has purchased NeXT Software, Inc., (Steve Jobs' company) on December 20, 1996, including the mature-by-a-decade NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP operating system - which is UNIX based, with an ultra smooth Macintosh-type interface. It is public knowledge that the new Mac "upper-end" operating system is nearing developer release and as a NeXT/OPENSTEP user for the past six years, I can say that Macintosh people out there should be chomping at the bit to get any information about Rhapsody because its origin is without doubt, "THE Cat's Meow !!!" Mac OS 8 may be getting news, but (OPENSTEP was and) Rhapsody will be stable (crashes almost unheard of), powerful, multitasking, multiprocessing, TCP/IP to the core, Internet savvy, great inter-application integration, great as stand-alone or as client-server networked machines institution-wide, Display PostScript as the imaging model, powerful relational database support for all major packages, and on and on... I make these comments because as a photo curator in a non-profit collection management position for eight years, my efforts towards computerization were rewarded when I thought beyond platform specific issues and sought solutions for my data development/collection management problems. I found a wonderful computing solution that went beyond Windows or Mac, and now that technology will likely find a much larger audience because of the recent Apple purchase. With Steve Jobs back in the creative vision seat for a time, next week's MacWorld Boston conference might yield some interesting headlines which have implications for everyone. Microsoft may own 85% of the desktop machines out there, but Bill Gates hasn't yet monopolized the Internet. Remain focused on "Open Standards" and your data will follow. Computing is still young and desktop diversity will always keep things interesting and productive. Demanding what you need professionally, not what exists presently, and the software engineers may get orders from the "marketing types" with features generated by "customer demand" - a very powerful feature stimulus. >From a person who uses many OSs, but prefers (a specific) one, Robert MacKimmie [email protected]
