On 9/30/2015 6:52 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 09/30/2015 03:48 AM, Robert Green wrote:
I am not sure that the PC revolution would have been as remarkable as it was
without the clones. They enabled a lot more people access to personal
computing than an IBM-only world would have.

I never owned a genuine IBM PC and didn't have compatibility problems. Some
were hotter than PCs, in more ways than one.

I'm always amused when people I consider to be toward the left end of the
political spectrum favor Apple products. I guess they like the 'my way or the
highway' approach Apple has always used.

Most of the folks that I know who are into Macs "just want it to work".
They tend not to use esoteric software (e.g., just a "productivity
suite") so can live with the more restrictive offerings that seem
to be available to the Apple world. OTOH, they don't want to have
to spend an afternoon coercing a printer to interoperate with their
computer. Or, deal with DLL hell, The Registry, etc.

A neighbor who frequently called me to sort out his "PC problems"
bought a Mac about two years ago. I've not heard from him (wrt
computer problems) since then! So, either he has decided he
doesn't need all those programs and peripherals that he needed
previously on his PC (doubtful!) *or* the Mac manages to make
it easier for him to make it work without my involvement.

[He's a Republican, if that matters : ]

Old (e.g., 68K) Macs were always BUILT much better than PC's of similar
vintage. But, running MacOS was just impractical (for the sorts of
applications that *I* want). And, they were terribly underpowered
(esp for the price).