Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!orstcs!boone@oce.orst.edu
From: boone@oce.orst.edu (Jeff Boone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Academic workstations : Macintosh ...
Message-ID: <11265@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 17 Jun 89 04:16:02 GMT
References: <507@lclark.UUCP> <1209@uvm-gen.UUCP> <836@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: boone@oce.orst.edu (Jeff Boone)
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Organization: College of Oceanography, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, Or.
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In article <836@hydra.gatech.EDU> russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) writes:
>
>  does anybody else know of a shop that's used all 3?
>    (Mac/AUX, NeXT, Sun)

Here at Oceanography we have a network of Macs, Suns, and NeXTs.  These
are my opinions of the machines.

NeXT:  I have to agree with you that the machine is bug ridden.  I foolishly
       chose to do my Master's (CS) project on the thing and I'm having a
       heck of a time finding useful information in their WEAK documentation.
       The box is much slower than we had anticipated.  I know there has
       been a big discussion lately about floating point and integer 
       arithmetic speed and the NeXT seems to fare pretty well, but I'm
       talking about user response time (UNIX overhead kills).
    
       On the plus side, I think the NeXT probably has more potential than
       either of the other 2 product lines.  It just needs time to work out
       the bugs and get some serious software developed for it.  It will be
       interesting to see what the Canon stock purchase will mean for NeXT.

Sun:   We have quite a few researches committed to the Sun product line.
       They are great for graphical displays of huge oceanographic data.
       There is certainly a lack of productivity software for them besides
       the couple of very good publishing packages.  Ever look at Sun Write,
       Paint, and Draw?  Can you say ugly stuff?  Granted their only first
       generation, but it's pretty poor software.  If Sun is planning to
       put their SparcIntosh onto desktops of anyone other than researchers
       they need better productivity tools.

Mac:   AUX is slow and System V based.  In its current state it is not
       very useful.  We do look forward to version 2.0 which is supposed
       to have a front end indistinguishable from the finder (we'll see :-).
       The Mac has all its strength in the huge software base (isn't that
       what the say about MS-DOS?).  I think Apple has realized that the
       Mac really can't compete with the other vendors within a workstation
       environment, it is the cadillac of personal computers :-).

Here at oceanogrphy, almost all researchers have both a Sun and a Mac (not
running AUX) on their desks.  The Sun to crunch data, and the Mac to do
everyday kinds of chores.

-------------------
These opinions are completely mine.
Jeff Boone
boone@oce.orst.edu
College of Oceanography, Oregon State University