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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.nkn.net!news From: strops@fastlane.net (Jay Urbanski) Newsgroups: alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc,alt.binaries.warez.mac,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.sys.acorn.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.next.advocacy,comp.sys.powerpc.advocacy,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.machten,comp.unix.pc-clone.16bit,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.user-friendly Subject: Re: FIVE GOOD REASONS WHY IBM'S ARE BETTER THAN MACS Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 00:55:06 GMT Organization: Paranet Lines: 114 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <31801aeb.271271000@news.fastlane.net> References: <Cyclone-0504961737500001@dial24.trip.net> <31664662.1081143@153.2.170.10> <dke-0604960729360001@adnline68.adnc.com> <31678d59.1170056@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <31685e02.5498255@news.earthlink.net> <4kabef$lfg@acmez.gatech.edu> <3169647e.2324874@news.earthlink.net> <4kc7m3$b7o@acmez.gatech.edu> <316abacb.31125569@news.earthlink.net> <avi-1104962354100001@cyber100.cyberspc.mb.ca> <316e38b1.3254237@news.earthlink.net> <Cyclone-1204961753220001@dial18.trip.net> <316f7c0f.4109582@news.earthlink.net> <ak night-1304961318100001@dial4.trip.net> <avi-1604962127440001@cyber119.cyberspc.mb.ca> <31794646.5442940@news.innotts.co.uk> <317a9ffe.9078316@news.brandeis.edu> <317bd82d.4871541@news.innotts.co.uk> <jm040795-2304961948090001@mencju.apple.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.42.189.54 X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99d/32.182 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc:35237 alt.binaries.warez.mac:3477 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46871 comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:125107 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:22926 comp.os.msdos.misc:53982 comp.os.os2.advocacy:196130 comp.sys.acorn.advocacy:8715 comp.sys.mac.advocacy:101605 comp.sys.next.advocacy:35007 comp.sys.powerpc.advocacy:3060 comp.unix.advocacy:19943 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:18009 comp.unix.bsd.misc:822 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3310 comp.unix.machten:2323 comp.unix.pc-clo ne.16bit:720 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:9276 comp.unix.shell:31955 comp.unix.solaris:66841 comp.unix.user-friendly:3656 jm040795@fhda.edu (Raven) wrote: :One thing that IBM-Heads miss is the few minor problems with PC hardware :that doesn't exist in Macintosh hardware or other hardware (Amiga, HP, :Sun, SGI). First of all, you need to learn the difference between hardware and software limitations before you go spouting off nonsense. :Some may argue the MacOS sucks, but that's another arguement. And I would, it's not robust enough for me.. but most Mac users don't care. :Here are a few things that bother me on PC clones: : - 640k memory barrier, 64k allocations Wrong. Intel CPU's have no 640K limit - they can address up to 4G of ram. 64K allocations? You are thinking of some 16-bit OS limit not hardware. : - Many OSes will not install over 1 gigabyte, including Linux. Huh? Install over 1G what? My OS can utilize 2G ram and 16 Exabytes hard drive space - on one volume. : - Many OSes can only see DOS partitions and not other partitions. Hmm.. gee the only ones I can think of in this case are the DOS and Windows 95. Seeing how 95 uses DOS to boot that's not surprising. My OS can see 3 types. : - ONLY >>> 4 <<< partitions can be created on a drive. Bzzt: Wrong again - where do you get this stuff? This is a DOS limit - OS not hardware. I can create as many partitions as I like. : - BIOS ONLY boots IDE even if you have SCSI drives (Mr. BIOS and others :exception) Gee I boot from SCSI - you just turn the SCSI BIOS on. This is hard? Mac's just have SCSI boot support in their BIOS I am sure - tell me can you pick whichever latest and greatest SCSI controller you want and boot from it with a Mac? : - Need to adjust CMOS in BIOS when changing floppy drive, hard drives, etc. I don't change floppy's very often I don't know about you, but yes you have to tell the BIOS what is present. As for hard drive's I don't have to tell my SCSI adapter anything. : - Drives/Removable media formatting on one SCSI host adapter may be :unreadable on a system with a different host adapter. Gee maybe becuase we have a choice of different vendors? Again can you pick whatever vendor you want? (I really have no idea) : - Many cards difficult to configure with DMA channels, port i/o :addresses, IRQs, etc. This is one of the biggest pains with the PC architecture, I admit. But modern PC's do most of this automatically - the situation has improved greatly and continues to improve. :Macintoshes do not have these pathetic partitioning and booting limitations. Again, what partitioning and booting limits? All the things you mentioned were DOS limitations. Some of us run real operating systems. :Some points on Macs : - Macintosh auto configure Boot ROM settings. (PRAM) I'm not sure what this accomplishes - feel free to elaborate. : - You can boot either IDE or SCSI on computers that have both interfaces. Again, so can I. : - Drives/Removable media work interoperably between different hardware. And different SCSI cards? Just how do they accomplish this? You mean I can take a drive formatted by my Buslogic controller and have an Adaptec controller read it like magic? That is pretty neat.. how do they do that? : - Newer Macs use 64bit DIMMs. Advantage being? : - Newer Macs have cpu daughter card. Hm.. I have 2 CPU's on my motherboard, what would I use a daughter card for? : - All PowerMacs have cache SIMMs verses SRAM chips. Advantage being? : - Video settings stored in Boot ROM settings (PRAM) verses .INI or other :config files. This sounds neat - but how do you accomodate all the different video card manufacturers? : - Video on Macs require high-refresh, verses low refresh on many monitors :used with PC clones. Require? This is supposed to be good? What if I can't afford a high-refresh monitor? But good thing I can a decent one I'm running 1024x768 at 76H. Of course if you have the money you can get much better than that - but Mac monitors are no cheaper. : - Macintosh cards Nubus and PCI (OpenFirmware) autoload/autoconfigure :themselves. There's no need to change any dip switches on the card if dip :switches did exist. I don't have a card in my machine that uses dip switches, thank goodness.