>I've really never seen
>anything involving hardware that could be done cheaply AND easily on a MAC.
>Most things seem to be both insanely difficult and excruciatingly costly.
I'll give you the expensive part (up until the latest machines with their
USB, most mac hardware has been up to twice as much as the same thing on
the PC). But EVERYTHING about Mac hardware is easy. Things just work.
>IIRC, I once ordered a simple router of some sort, a PC/AT + "fancy"
>monitor +
>HP LaserJet printer + extra LJ memory + software for MUCH (nearly half) less
>than it cost to attach the half-dozen MAC's in our office to an Apple laser
>printer. Most of the cost for the Apple solution was for the Apple
>printer, of
>course, but it still left quite a margin! The fact that the Apple printer
>used
>postscript probably contributed mightily to its cost as opposed to the
>LJII, but
>it probably didn't cost that much. I could have used a postscript
>cartridge, I
>guess, but the software managed that problem.
The postscript card probably would have been much cheaper. I don't recall
if the HPLJII had provisions for adding localtalk or ethertalk, but there
were boxes available back then that could provide it (plugged in to the
parallel port). The two combined probably would have been cheaper than
your PC + monitor. Which, of course, I won't argue was probably a cheaper
solution than buying some of the Apple branded printers.
>I can see why the MAC users of the mid '90's liked the MAC. It shuts down
>right
>away, as opposed to making you wait around to shut off the computer. Of
>course,
>I don't know how it behaves on a network. I've read that the reason the PC
>under Windows shuts down slowly is because it takes time to dismiss the
>various
>connections, logical and physical on the LAN. I'm not convinced, however,
>but
>that's one excuse that's been published.
Well, that is the advantage of using a GOOD OS (strictly speaking in
comparison to Windows of the era, so compared to Win up to and including
win95). Oh, and it behaves just fine with network connections (regardless
of protocol)... far better than one would expect if you use Appletalk
(once again... it just works... chatty, but works).
-chris
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Received on Fri Nov 16 2001 - 17:41:55 GMT