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A 2007 AMD Dual-Core PC vs. a 1986 Macintosh Plus
14 years ago
#!/bin/sh
printf "%s " "shouting into the void..."
( cat << HERE
printf "%s " "shouting into the void..."
( cat << HERE
You won't believe who wins
It's a few years old now, but a then-modern PC was pitted against an ancient Mac in a test of simple and common user tasks, basic word processing and spreadsheet calculating. Statistically, very few people use a computer productively for much more than that, so it's a fair comparison. The result: With both PCs comparably tuned and installed with comparable versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, they performed identically well with the Mac winning just over half the tests, with one notable exception, despite the thousand-fold disparity in the raw computing power statistics. The one notable exception was that System 6 booted to a usable and responsive desktop in one-fifth the time Windows XP did.
The takeaway is exactly what every user who's ever upgraded a home computer has always suspected: With all the advancements in storage capacity, processing speed, presentation hardware, and user interfaces, actual computing productivity hasn't changed in more than 20 years.
And the Internet, which wasn't figured in the tests, is an amazing distraction.
It's a few years old now, but a then-modern PC was pitted against an ancient Mac in a test of simple and common user tasks, basic word processing and spreadsheet calculating. Statistically, very few people use a computer productively for much more than that, so it's a fair comparison. The result: With both PCs comparably tuned and installed with comparable versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, they performed identically well with the Mac winning just over half the tests, with one notable exception, despite the thousand-fold disparity in the raw computing power statistics. The one notable exception was that System 6 booted to a usable and responsive desktop in one-fifth the time Windows XP did.
The takeaway is exactly what every user who's ever upgraded a home computer has always suspected: With all the advancements in storage capacity, processing speed, presentation hardware, and user interfaces, actual computing productivity hasn't changed in more than 20 years.
And the Internet, which wasn't figured in the tests, is an amazing distraction.
