Apple Reference & Presen…rary 8 (Internal Edition)/Apple R&P Lib Internal v8.0.iso/3-Presentations/Apple Computer Inc./Industry Competition/ROMs/Software/Mac vs. OS⁄2 pt. 2

Text File | 1990-06-24 | 17KB | 312 lines

pt. 2

Apple Confidential


COMPARING MACINTOSH WITH OS/2

OS/2 with Presentation Manager offers many Macintosh-like interface features.
For example, it offers resizable windows, pull-down menus, scroll bars, mouse
support.  It has a file manager which includes icons and allows direct
manipulation of files.  And it includes a clipboard for cutting and pasting
data between applications.

However, there are still many differences between these two environments.  The
following sections will discuss some of the advantages of the Macintosh over
OS/2, and some of the advantages of OS/2 over Macintosh.  These Macintosh
advantages should be useful in sales situations.  In our discussion of OS/2
advantages, we suggest how Apple can respond to those objections when they are
raised.


Macintosh Advantages over OS/2

This section explains the Macintosh advantages over OS/2, so that you can
compete more effectively against OS/2.  We begin by describing the four key
long-term competitive advantages that the Macintosh has over OS/2.  Then we
list some additional advantages, at both the operating system level and the
user interface level.

Macintosh System 7.0 will offer additional advantages over OS/2 that are not
covered in this document.  When System 7.0 becomes available, we will publish a
document comparing it with OS/2 2.0 (both are expected to ship in the fall of
1990).  This document  focuses on the Macintosh operating system advantages
available today.


Macintosh Key Advantages over OS/2

Macintosh operating system is BEST.  We believe the Macintosh operating system
is ahead of OS/2, and will stay ahead.  We have used the mnemonic BEST to help
you to remember the four most important Macintosh operating system advantages.
After we discuss the four key advantages of Macintosh over OS/2, we list some
additional operating system advantages and user interface advantages.

Broad product line—Runs across a broad product line whereas OS/2 only runs on
high-end PCs.
Easy—Easier to learn and use than OS/2.
Speedy—Applications run faster than similar OS/2 applications.
Thousands of consistent applications—Will have more applications than OS/2 for
years.

Broad product line.  Macintosh software will run across a wide range of
platforms, from the economical Macintosh Plus to the high-end Macintosh IIci.
In contrast, OS/2 will only run on high-end machines.  It will not run on 8086
or 8088 machines.  And its performance on 80286 machines has been criticized by
many industry analysts.

Part of the reason the Macintosh operating system runs across such a broad
product line is that it requires less hardware than OS/2.  Microsoft recommends
4 MB of RAM and a 40 MB disk for OS/2 1.2 Standard Edition.  Here are Gartner
Group’s estimates of the minimum hardware required to run various operating
environments:



According to Gartner Group, Macintosh System 6 and System 7.0 require less
hardware than the IBM operating environments.

Easy.  The general industry consensus is that the Macintosh operating system is
easier to learn and use than OS/2.  For example, Stuart Alsop stated that “The
Macintosh is still the clear leader in interface design...Apple still maintains
about a three-year development lead over Microsoft and the IBM world.”  The
section below “Other Macintosh User Interface Advantages over Presentation
Manager” points out examples of how the Macintosh is easier to learn and use
than Presentation Manager.

Speedy.  Macintosh applications run faster than similar OS/2 applications,
since the Macintosh was designed from the start to give optimum performance in
a graphical environment.  National Software Testing Laboratories ran benchmarks
comparing the performance of the 25-MHz Macintosh IIci with the 25-MHz PS/2
Model 70 386 running OS/2 with Presentation Manager.  Excel and PageMaker were
benchmarked because they are the only applications that run in both the
Macintosh and Presentation Manager environments.  NSTL determines overall
performance by calculating the geometric mean of all the timings for each
application.  The lower the geometric mean, the faster the machine.



Averaging the results of these two applications shows that the IIci was 17%
faster than the IBM Model 70 386.  Assuming that the hardware is comparable
(although the IBM machine is more expensive when comparable configured) these
benchmarks indicate that the Macintosh operating system runs applications
faster than OS/2.

Thousands of applications.  The variety and depth of OS/2 Presentation Manager
software will fall short of the Macintosh for years.  The Macintosh offers
around four thousand applications, compared to 16 that we verified for
Presentation Manager.  In fact, the Macintosh has many more applications than
Presentation Manager, Windows, and the GUI-ized UNIX environments (MOTIF, Open
Look, NeXT, etc.) combined.


Other Macintosh Operating System Advantages over OS/2

This section lists some additional advantages that the current Macintosh
operating system provides over OS/2.  Keep in mind that the advantages listed
below are for Macintosh System 6.  Macintosh System 7.0 will offer additional
advantages over OS/2, both in terms of the underlying operating system features
and in terms of user interface.

Greater consistency of applications.  Today, Macintosh applications are much
more consistent than MS-DOS applications.  It is not clear that applications
under Presentation Manager will achieve the degree of consistency that has been
obtained with the Macintosh for the following reasons:

•  Large developers may not follow Microsoft's lead.  For obvious political
reasons, the major PC developers (like Lotus and Ashton-Tate) may not let an
aggressive competitor like Microsoft dictate the look and feel of their own
products.

•  DOS developers already have a huge stake in existing interfaces.  To an
experienced 1-2-3 or dBASE user, any new interface—which presumably will
incorporate new ways to implement familiar operations—is likely to be more
confusing than helpful.  Mainstream DOS developers may not adhere to all the
rules of the Presentation Manager interface.

•  Less evangelism from Microsoft and IBM.  Historically Apple has promoted
adherence to interface guidelines more heavily for Macintosh than Microsoft and
IBM have done for Presentation Manager.  Although Microsoft has recently
increased its evangelism efforts, we believe that Apple will continue to be
more effective in this area.

•  PC developers are used to autonomy.  DOS software developers are used to
writing programs in the way that seems best and fastest to them.  They may
ignore Presentation Manager recommendations from IBM or Microsoft when they
feel they have a better idea for their applications.

Easier installation/configuration of software and peripherals.  PC software is
more complex to configure compared to Macintosh software.  Installing OS/2 (six
diskettes for Standard Edition) takes about 30 minutes, and you have to answer
questions about the hardware that is connected to your system.  Furthermore,
adding peripherals to the Macintosh is usually easier than adding them to an
OS/2 system.  If you install the wrong OS/2 mouse driver, which we found was
easy to do, you must reinstall OS/2.

Presentation Manager has limited drivers.  IBM has only supplied a few
Presentation Manager printer drivers and monitor drivers.  This means that only
a few printers and large screen monitors can currently work with Presentation
Manager.  Other Presentation Manager drivers, such as for input devices or
scanners, are also scarce.  However, manufacturers have been hesitant to invest
in writing Presentation Manager drivers since so few customers are using OS/2.
(OS/2 1.2 shipped with a PostScript driver, but that version does not work
correctly with all applications.  Microsoft acknowledges the problem and has
said the new driver will ship with a future release of OS/2.)

Less expensive.  The Macintosh operating system is free, while OS/2 Standard
Edition is priced at $340 and Extended Edition at $830.

Presentation Manager is complex to develop for.  Developers have stated that
Presentation Manager applications are time consuming to write because of the
complexity of the development environment and because the development tools are
incomplete.  As a case in point, it took Microsoft (codeveloper of Presentation
Manager) two years to migrate Excel from Windows to Presentation Manager.

Can copy and paste DOS on a Macintosh with Soft PC.  When using a third party
DOS emulator, Soft PC, the Macintosh can copy from DOS/Windows applications and
paste to the Macintosh.  The compatibility box won’t allow copying DOS or
Windows data to OS/2.

Macintosh system software can be enhanced faster.   It will probably take
longer for Microsoft to evolve Presentation Manager than for Apple to evolve
the Macintosh system software since Microsoft must work together with IBM.


Other Macintosh User Interface Advantages over Presentation Manager

Overall, the Macintosh interface is easier to learn and use than Presentation
Manager.  Byte magazine (Dec. 1989, p. 138) states that “the Mac OS is faster
at the basics of file management than OS/2, because its interface is more
intuitive and easier to learn.  It’s also easier to use, since its windowing
interface is smoother and more refined.  Apple’s head start shows when you sit
a Mac next to an OS/2 box and play with both.  Start a program, do computer
housekeeping (e.g. file copying or deleting, or directory changes), cut and
paste using the clipboards, shift from program to program, and you’ll see what
I mean.  While OS/2 is a huge improvement over DOS, it still feels like its
interface and graphics were bolted on, rather than designed from the ground
up.”

The key Macintosh user interface advantages are that it has an overall
metaphor, it provides more flexible manipulation, its Finder is better than
Presentation Manager’s File Manager, and Presentation Manager has
inconsistencies.

Macintosh has a desktop metaphor.  One of the most important Macintosh user
interface advantage is that is has an overall metaphor, whereas Presentation
Manager does not.  On the Macintosh, you organize files and programs in folders
stored in a variety of containers (usually equivalent to disks) on the desktop.
You throw things away in the trash can.  You can drag frequently used
applications or documents onto your desktop so they are easy to access.  OS/2
doesn’t have a consistent overall metaphor.  It resembles a desktop metaphor at
times (with files residing in folder icons), but it lacks other fundamentals
(such as an icon for deleting files, or the ability to drag files out onto a
desktop).

Macintosh provides more flexible manipulation.  The Macintosh allows the user
to point and click to accomplish functions that are multistep processes for
OS/2.

•  When using OS/2’s Directory Tree, only one folder can be manipulated at a
time.  Therefore, you have to copy or delete each folder individually.  The
Macintosh can perform direct manipulation on numerous  folders at once.

•  In OS/2’s view by icon mode, you can’t rearrange the icons. The icons always
appear alphabetically.  And if you resize the window, the icons shift places.
In View by Icon on the Macintosh you can position icons so that they appear
logically arranged to you.  And they don’t move when you resize the window.

•  On the Macintosh, you can click and type on a file to change its name.  With
OS/2, you must click on the file to select it, select Rename from the File
menu, and type in the new name.

•  Naming files is more flexible on the Macintosh.  You can use spaces and lower
case with any Macintosh application.  To get that with Presentation Manager,
the application has to be written to support long file names.  Assuming an
application has been written to support long file names, Presentation Manager
imposes some awkwardness in handling those extended attributes.  To use spaces
in a filename, you must type quote marks before and after that name.  If you
type a very long name, you cannot see that whole name in view by icon mode.  It
becomes truncated.  On the Macintosh, you can see the whole filename in view by
icon.

•  If you have more folders than can be seen in the OS/2 Directory Tree window,
there is no easy way to move a folder on top of the tree to a folder on the
bottom.  This can be done on the Macintosh by moving  a folder to the desktop,
and then into another folder.  And in System 7.0, the window will scroll as you
drag.

Weaknesses in OS/2’s File Manager.  The Macintosh was designed from the
beginning to have an integrated file system.  Indeed, the Macintosh file
system, the Finder, is built into the desktop interface.  In contrast, the OS/2
File Manager is an application that must be launched (usually taking between 10
and 20 seconds) before the user can work with individual files.  Here is a
listing of some of the other weaknesses of the OS/2 File Manager:

•  On the Macintosh, when you insert a diskette, a diskette icon appears on the
desktop.  OS/2 doesn’t automatically recognize when a disk has been inserted.

•  If an OS/2 file folder window is open, and the user creates a new document in
an application, it will not appear in the file window, even when you quit the
application.  You must choose the Refresh menu option to have that new file
listed in its window.  In contrast, the Macintosh displays the new file icon as
soon as it is created.

•  The OS/2 Directory Tree window only shows directories.  It doesn’t display
any individual files.  So, for example, when you click on the drive A icon to
see what’s on drive A, you don’t see any files listed.  That could confuse
beginning users.  You have to double click on the A:\ to show what files are in
the root directory.

•  Double clicking on an OS/2 document doesn’t automatically open the
application that created it.  You have to “Associate” the document with the
application file first.  With some applications, such as PageMaker, after you
have associated one document with the application, clicking on other documents
will open the application.  With at least one application, DeScribe, every
document has to be associated with the application before double clicking on
the document will launch the application.

•  Presentation Manager lists many obscure files in the root directory.  Ten of
these obscure files are F80000.BIO, F80100.BIO, F80402.BIO, F80702.BIO,
F80902.BIO, F80C00.BIO, F80D00.BIO, FC0400.BIO, FC0403.BIO, FC0500.BIO.

Inconsistencies in Presentation Manager.  Presentation Manager has a number of
inconsistencies.  It is inconsistent with its previous release (Version 1.1).
Furthermore, the actions required to perform certain functions are not always
consistent.

•  OS/2 is evolving.  Version 1.2 makes you relearn things from version 1.1.
For example, in version 1.1 you dragged files with the left mouse button.  In
version 1.2 you drag files with the right mouse button.  Furthermore, in 1.1
the default action when you drag a file was a copy.  In 1.2 the default is a
move (like the Macintosh).  Therefore, some of the functions that were learned
for Version 1.1 will have to be relearned for Version 1.2.  In contrast,
functionality continues to be added to the Macintosh interface, but things you
learned don’t need to be discarded and relearned.  This is an example of how
the Macintosh provides growth without disruption.

•  The Extended Edition portions of OS/2 (the Database Manager and the
Communications Manager) are still character-based applications, not
Presentation Manager programs.  Furthermore, the “Introducing OS/2” application
that comes with OS/2 1.2 is also character-based.  It is not a graphical
Presentation Manager application.

•  During startup, Presentation Manager shows a variety of miscellaneous
information in character-based mode, before it moves into a graphical mode.
The Macintosh was designed from the beginning to have a graphical user
interface, and it never goes into another mode.

•  You drag icons in the File Manager with the right mouse button (you select
them with the left mouse button).  You drag icons on the “desktop” with either
mouse button.

•  Double clicking in the close box closes some OS/2 windows, but not others
(such as Desktop Manager and Print Manager because the tasks they represent are
always running).  Double clicking does close the Task Manager window, even
though the Task Manager is always running.

Please see Mac vs. OS/2 ROM pt. 3