Parallel universe

[Barry Margolin <barmar@THINK.COM>]

I just saw this in the netnews comp.sys.mac newsgroup.  Substitute
"Symbolics" for "Apple", "Lucid/Franz" for "Microsoft", and perhaps
"Lisp" for "OS" and you get an amazing parallel to our world!  I've
noticed similar parallels before; Macs are noticeably more expensive
than PCs and clones, so justifying a Mac purchase to management is like
justifying a Symbolics purchase rather than a Sun.  In the PC and
mainframe world, no one is ever fired for choosing IBM, and in the
workstation world no one would be fired for choosing Sun.

Of course, by the same token, Symbolics's answers about why they haven't
pursued the SW-only course would be valid for Apple.  I'm not saying
that the views quoted below are correct; I just find it interesting that
we're not the only customers with the same attitude towards our vendor.

Here's the posting:

From: fozzard@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Richard Fozzard)
Subject: Re: Official Legal Announcement regarding Apple's Source Code
Date: 21 Jun 89 19:18:22 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder

In article <gYba9Ly00WB8E1LY5L@andrew.cmu.edu> aa0s+@andrew.cmu.edu (Adel Talaat Assaad) writes:
>macintosh IS its software, its user interface guidelines, its graphics
>orientation and its desktop metaphore. The hardware itself is pretty
>doggone bland, and serves only as a vehicle for the OS Apple makes!
>
>I have a feeling that if Apple lets go of their look and feel bit,
>they will become a software company. Their hardware is just NOT going
>to compete with the clonemakers' cheapies, and they could end up
>selling just the OS! 
>
Now wouldnt this be wonderful? Microsoft does this successfully, you know.

> I do agree, obviously, that Apple's hardware is underpowered and
>overpriced.  They should have had some custom I/O circuits and
>coprocessors, etc...  

I personally think it would be wonderful to go to Compaq or AST or
whomever to buy a cheap powerful and flexible piece of hardware (maybe
even laptop :-)), then pay Apple $500 (*) or so for the OS+ROMs. This would
be the real victory for the consumer. (Ralph Nader, where are you?)

Apple _should_ become a software company and stop gouging the user for
"doggone bland" hardware!

rich

(*) $500 seems a reasonable ballpark figure for tho OS, since a Mac Plus
at a street price of $1100 could probably be cloned w/o ROMs and sold
for $600-800 (this is the street price of XT clones that have comparable
technology)
========================================================================
Richard Fozzard					"Serendipity empowers"
University of Colorado			
fozzard@boulder.colorado.edu                   (303)492-8136 or 444-3168