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Re: Computers




I don't have any experience with NeXt, so I can't comment on how slow it
is. But I have a feeling that is not a major concern for the new
generation of PowerPC chips. Apple execs can't be totally stupid. They
have just forked over $400 million (not bad for a company that's
supposedly in hopeless condition) for NeXT. I'm looking forward to the
new system. Just hope Apple doesn't go under because of consumer fears
before they get a chance to implement it.

--Bob Estes

I do too and if anyone is qualified to pull off such an emulation
project, it is Apple. The mixture of emulation and native code during
the move to the PowerPC was really rather clever. Whether they are
capable of doing it or not is another question -- they have in recent
years been unable to shift things out of the r&d labs. However, I
have serious doubts emulations that run as fast as non-emulations.
The clever bit about the PowerPC migration was ciphering out which OS
calls weren't used all that often -- but when they were used, they
slowed the system down due to the emulation -- or anyway that was the
gist of what I got out of Byte some time back.

What is hurting Apple the most is not consumer fears -- it is
developer desertion due to lack of a modern platform and continuing
to throw megahertz at it won't make that problem go away. Apple needs
a modernized, true multitasking, multithreaded, protected memory,
*stable* operating system soon. They claim next year now but the
history of OS development is littered with grossly overoptimistic
time estimates. We'll see.

As I said before, the task dictates the software and the software
dictates the hardware -- Macs are useful for some jobs but not for
all. The thing that disturbs me about some of the Mac community is
the zealotry, the thinking by sloganeering, the evil empire rhetoric
and the notion that "somebody is out to get us." That hasn't popped
up much in this discussion (but then we are a special group 8-) but
read the editorials in MacWeek from time to time.

Sometimes the Mac evangelists remind me of the Witnesses that show up
on my doorstep every other Sunday -- if only I would get True
Religion everything would be OK. One day I'm going to meet them at
the door buck nekkid, dripping with water, with a machete in one
hand and a jar of Vick's Vapo-Rub in the other. That'll be the end of
.. . . . . well, *something*, I'm sure.

Paul J. Camp "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University in variety but also of
Conway, SC 29528 variety in unity.
pjcamp@coastal.edu --Umberto Eco
pjcamp@postoffice.worldnet.att.net The Name of the Rose
(803)349-2227
fax: (803)349-2926