Clever Monkey wrote:
> Elizabeth D Rather wrote:
....
> This is an interesting critique of the received wisdom, but it falls
> into exactly the same trap in some respects.
>
> In their argument that the best tech does not always win, they cite:
>
> Mac vs. Wintel
> Emacs vs. vi
> Lisp vs. Java
> ...
>
> Really? These are the highlights of better technologies that have lost
> out that they have chosen to prove their argument?
>
> First of all, the assumption that one of these is better technology than
> the other is specious, at best. Second of all, best technology in what
> regard? Are Macs really all that better? I may think so, but what I'm
> really saying is that "Macs are better for me, as a working software
> engineer and part-time home IT person, and let's face it, when I
> switched Linux desktops sucked and Windows 2000 was a disaster."
I can't comment knowledgeably about Emacs vs vi or Lisp vs. Java, but I
know a lot about Macs vs PCs. We (FORTH, Inc.) bought our first PCs
when they first came out, and had Forth running on them within a few
months. That was about 1981. We bought our first Mac in 1984 (also
when they first came out), and Macs quickly became our office computer
of choice. There was one on every desk, and those doing PC development
had one of each. Not only did all of us who used both prefer the Mac,
all industry pundits of the time acknowledged its technical superiority.
By the mid-90's Windows became sufficiently usable that we could abandon
the dual-technology office. Everyone was sad to see their Macs go, but
it was just too complicated to support two incompatible networks. It
was clear that Windows had won the market share battle.
Last January, I bought another Mac, my first in 12 years. It's a
dual-boot (BootCamp) computer, so I have both Leopard and XP available.
There is absolutely no doubt that Leopard is faster and easier to use
by a huge margin. I spent time in XP *only* because there's software
for it that isn't available for Leopard.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
--
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Elizabeth D. Rather (US & Canada) 800-55-FORTH
FORTH Inc. +1 310.999.6784
5959 West Century Blvd. Suite 700
Los Angeles, CA 90045
http://www.forth.com
"Forth-based products and Services for real-time
applications since 1973."
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