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To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (16725)	8/15/1998 1:35:00 AM
From: Andrew Danielson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

"Hear the G3 is almost twice as fast as the P2 400." Hearing Jobs on CNBC tote the line that the G3 "toasts" a Pentium II 400 made me cringe a little, as does the sentence above. There's no question that as a _processor_, the G3 outclasses the PII in a big way. However, the processor is not independent. The software running on it (including the OS) can either help or hinder a processor's performance. Right now, the Mac OS (8.1) may be wonderfully easy to use and intuitive, but it is _not_ fast. It is upgraded technology still hanging on to elements from 1984. Even relative to Windows 95, it's old. As it stands now, PC users hearing statements from Jobs like the ones from the CNBC interview will try an iMac (or any G3) and be summarily disappointed with its speed. In many respects, a Windows 95 running a fast PII (300+) toasts the G3 (like application launch time, boot up time, etc.) not because of the processor but because of the OS. We will see the OS speed issue increasingly rectified over the next year, first with 8.5 (100% PPC-native) and then ultimately by OS X. In the meantime, however, using abstract measurements like the ones used by Byte magazine will only build up false expectations in the minds of potential iMac purchasers. I wish jobs and the various PR's would be a little more toned-down; emphasizing that the G3 beats out the PII clock speed for clock speed but not going go so far as to say it toasts the absolute top-of-the-line Wintel. Besides, who needs such an exaggeration? The iMac still toasts most of the Wintel computers of its price range, it still has the ease-of-use of the Mac OS, and it still has the coolest design around. Why be so eager to oversell? Remember, misleading claims may get people to buy iMacs, but how many disappointed customers become loyal to the company that disappointed them? Andrew