🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <1309@ndmath.UUCP>, by milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson):

A couple of comments....one person complained about my comparing a Mac to
a VAX system because there is such a large difference in price.  This
is not entirely true...it is now possible to purchase a VAX complete with
19" monitor, 300MB disk, HD floppy, CD-Rom drive and 16 MEG of RAM for
in the neighborhood of $20,000 with Unix or VMS.  You also get an
ethernet interface and a CD with the COMPLETE manual set (that's 20' of
shelf space according to DEC) and a preconfigured operating system.  
All the development and debugging tools are included, your favorite
language can be had for about another $700.  Now granted, you aren't going
to make any money writing games for this machine...but it is both price
compatable with the high-end Mac II computers and it's considerably
faster and nicer to develop software for.

$20,000 may seem like a lot...but try and put together a Mac II with that
much stuff on it for a lower price...I doubt you can do it.  To make it
easier to compare...a diskless workstation with 19" display runs about
$8,200.  This includes software licenses...it uses SCSI disks which are
available at reasonable prices anywhere.

Remember though...it's not the VAX hardware I was trying to compare...it's
the SOFTWARE that's so much better.  There isn't anything in the VAX 
development tools that couldn't be duplicated on the Mac...it's just that
nobody (including Apple) has DONE it yet.

I'm not trying to compare PC's of any kind to VAXes...I just want to see
better development environments on the Macs other personal computers I use.
It's almost always the case that the computers with the BEST development
systems have the BEST software....It's in the manufacturer's best interest
to put the very BEST development system they can on their computer, the better
the development system, the faster the software library for their computer
will build...and as we all know...if you have a big software library it
sells computers.

The best way to get TONS of software for a new computer is for the Manufactureer

to put together a really GREAT development system, then GIVE IT AWAY!


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Somebody else mentioned that CD's are too slow....they may make rotten
load devices...but they are GREAT for distributing software and storing
big documents.   The duplication cost for CD's (in quantity) is WAY lower
than copying disks or tapes.  Just by example, the DEC VMS CD is supposed
to contain the operating system, it's 20' of documentation, space for
NEARLY EVERY SOFTWARE PRODUCT DEC MAKES (that's over 100 packages) and
all their documentation as well.  If they want to send you a whole new
copy of the OS, it costs them about 5 bucks per CD.  Instead of having
stacks of documents and master disks (and waiting for ordered software
to be shipped) you just get a "key" over the phone that allows you to
use the software already on the CD.  If CD's are too slow, you can always
copy the stuff to a hard disk, or use cache memory.

Imagine how much easier it would be to write Mac programs if you could
have a "developers CD" with all of Inside Mac, all the technotes, all
of Apples sample software, copies of MPW & compilers, the developers
tools and a whole selection of utilities & programs from other
companies.  You get the CD, buy licenses to "turn on" what you need
and you are done.  No need for a table filled with masses of manuals or
to have a huge hard-disk to store all the sample stuff on.  They could
ship all the fonts, DA's, system software...etc as well, and the total
cost to send it out would be LESS than what they send out now.  You could
afford to master a whole new CD every month and mail it out for what
Apple now pays to copy and send out a packet of technotes each month.
And the info on the CD would be more complete!

If they had a service like this, I would gladly pay $600 for a CD-rom.
it would pay for itself in no time flat in saved time alone.

Send comments, flames, job offers (really!) and any spare change you
don't know what to do with to:

Greg Corson
19141 Summers Drive
South Bend, IN 46637
(219) 277-5306 
{pur-ee,rutgers,uunet}!iuvax!ndmath!milo