From: David Deranian (deranian_at_mac.com)
Date: Wed Sep 22 2004 - 19:41:56 PDT
Hi Folks.
I little thinking out loud here. First a quick set up to position
myself as an old timer. Been a Mac user since 1984, been a Newton user
non-stop since 1994.
It's dawned on m lately how absolutely fabulous the Mac's new operating
system really is. So much so, that I proposed to an Apple employee, the
notion that the stability and excellent performance of OS X might
actually be retarding the sales of new Mac hardware. I have
"hand-me-down" Macs all over the place. I gave my middle son a G3
Powerbook (Pismo), my oldest son in college has my old Titanium 500Mhz
and my youngest son has an old iMac. All of them solid as a rock, never
crashing, never any problems whatsoever with a user interface that's a
joy to use.
The point being, that although none of these machines will win any
speed contests, they're basically been "renewed" by virtue of OS X. If
slow and steady wins the race, these machines have several more years
in them at least.
Now on to the Newton. Lately, while using my Newton, I've really been
noticing how it's aged. Not just the obvious, like lack of color or one
button connectivity. The overall look and feel is starting to look
almost "vintage". While in most cases this is a desirable trait, (like
the 1962 Porsche 356 I used to own) in the world of computers, old is
usually synonymous with "no longer useful". Newton has been the
exception to that rule for almost 7 years now.
This is merely an observation on my part, so I'm not passing any
judgments on why people continue to love and use their Newtons, versus
those that decide to move on. To each his own. However, I can't imagine
that professional and advanced users that spend many hours per day in
front of a Mac running Panther like I do, don't feel somewhat
restricted when going back to use their Newtons, with the exception of
doing some very simple task like jotting down a note. I should add that
I continue to use my Newton for some pretty heavy stuff. I do all my
billing, time management and invoicing on it with TimeReporter. I track
my payables with Bills to Pay and PocketMoney. I use Leverage to assign
and track jobs. Suffice to say I use it a lot, but it sure is starting
to feel clumsy in comparison to a PowerBook running Panther.
With literally a symphony of software at my command, OS X allows me to
go like a bat out of hell in the Address Book, the Calendar, basically
all the functions the Newton can do, only much faster. Don't get me
wrong. I get it! I love the Newton and have for years. I understand the
elegance of the Newton OS, and continue to be very disappointed that
Apple has chosen not to resurrect it.
So, while I've owned both a PowerBook and a Newton for all these years,
and they've cohabited quite nicely, it's becoming more and more painful
to use the Newton for these basic tasks as opposed to the beauty and
stability of OS X.
To put it in more literal terms, for those of us that are heavy Mac
users AND heavy Newton users, suppose you had to make a choice between
using only a Newton and your desktop machine for the next 3 years or a
12" Aluminum Powerbook with Panther or Tiger and your desktop machine.
Which combo would you choose? Would the form factor of the Newton
versus the PowerBook be a major issue for a lot of you? I'd like hear
if any of you have been having similar thoughts and how many of you use
your Newton as your main computer or main portable computer?
Sorry this ran so long.
-- David Deranian Digital Arts & Sciences, Inc. Communication Arts for the Digital Age -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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