Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/10/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sadly Nathan what you say is quite true for many. I started writing software in the late sixties before PCs were available. I well remember the first IBM PC we got at work - Nigel Mansell won it for getting pole position at the South African GP - we would never have been able to afford to buy it. Up to then we had a Hewlett Packard HP85, a proprietry all in one computer, and an Analog Devices Macsym II which ran the wind tunnel. I wrote the software for both, nobody else in the company used a computer. The Macsym was a simple machine but it had a 16 slot card bus in the back that allowed connection to analogue and digital inputs and outputs. I used it to control the wind tunnel and to measure and analyse the results. I had also written some software to use it to digitise profiles in reverse from a flat bed XY plotter. It was effective but clunky, tiny green on black text only display and only a Scotch DC100 tape drive for storage of files sequentially - very easy to lose data. Analog Devices had announced a multi card for the PC which, whilst not as versatile as the Macsym, had enough inputs and outputs for my needs. I rewrote the software so it would run on the PC, not difficult as it was an enhanced BASIC for both so few changes were necessary. I thought it was worthwhile for the bigger screen, graphics and floppy capability. It turned out to be neither reliable nor fast enough to use, about 50 times slower than the Macsym. I can't remember what we ended up doing with it now - not using it for engineering anyway. This was my first experience of the PC world which has continued to disappoint me ever since. We use PCs at work and their (deliberate?) inability to be compatible is annoying. I have a Mac at home and can read any file from a PC I have tried so far - not so in reverse. We are indeed in a situation where we are largely stuck with PCs. This is not because they are good - they aren't particularly - but because they are dominant and have managed to engineer (the best bit of engineering they have done) a near monopoly. For most people PC is now synonymous with computer. Most are unaware of the alternatives. The main thing Microsoft have brought to computing is the lowering of peoples expectations of what computer software can do. Frank On 21 Oct, 2005, at 18:39, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > I really hate to get involved in a religious war, and I am frankly > not religious about this issue, but in the real world of mainstream > business Microsoft and Wintel rule for the simple reason that that > is what most other people use. I once used a consulting firm in > Paris for a project, and it was a Mac shop. They sent us > presentations in Powerpoint, and invariably things did not line up > correctly etc. when the files were opened on a Windows machine. I > would not want to take this risk when sending stuff to a customer, > and since 95%+ of recipients of my e-mails are in a Windows > environment, then I will be in a Windows environment too, at least > in my business. > > At home, for my Photoshop work, Apple might perhaps be a better > choice, but on the other hand, I often take work home and then I > would run into the same issue as referenced above. > > Finally, the wealth of software and hardware available for Windows > is so much greater than for Apple, and the prices are of course > correspondingly lower because of the greater competition. I am > writing this on a Win XP machine but using a free browser and free > email client, and I use a lot of other open source software both at > home and in the office. > > Apple's corporate turnaround is not due to the small minority of > graphic designer types and Mac fundamentalists. It is much more > driven by the success of the iPod. Apple has effectively become a > consumer electronics company with a computer division attached to it. > > Nathan