Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!nova.cc.purdue.edu!gerrit
From: gerrit@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Gerrit)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: What's coming?
Message-ID: <3015@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 16 Jun 89 17:55:05 GMT
References: <65100001@tippy>
Reply-To: gerrit@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Gerrit)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 41

In article <65100001@tippy> buzz@tippy.uucp writes:
>
>I'm curious, how is third-party software to be distributed?  Will some one ne
>be releasing a high-capacity disk drive?  How about modems and telecomm   
>software?  What other software/hardware is in the pipeline?

3rd party software:  There will be various means of distribution, usually
depending on the size of the product.  In some cases the developer will
ship an Optical Disk to every purchaser.  In other cases, a developer may
use the Key system that NeXT is working on to distribute a copy to central
points (typically University support centers) and sell "keys" to the
support center which will allow a certain number of copies to be made.  And
for developers with small products, NeXT will collect small products and
make them available as software group, putting several products on a single
OD.  (Some of this info may have changed, it is just what I remember from
the developer's camp).

High Capacity Disk Drives?  The NeXT ships with a 256 Meg removable,
read/write Optical disk.  Is that high enough capacity?  They also make
available 330Meg and 660Meg hard drives.  And to top that off there is a
standard SCSI port and you can go vendor shopping and pick up pretty much
anything you want.

Modems/telecomm:  Kermit can be made to work, as probably can be
xmodem/ymodem/zmodem and such.  There is a standard RS-422 port on the
back, so you can pick up almost any standard modem and the appropriate
cable and attach it to your phone line.  There have been rumors of a
software modem utilizing the DSP, but at this point those are just
rumours.

Other software:  The list has been posted here many times already.  I'd
suggest you stop by the demo lab at Purdue.  I also plan to make available
the archives of this group once I get a chance to prune out some of the
unneeded headers.  There is also a small but growing amount of software
available in the public domain.  Much of it is available for anonymous ftp
from J.cc.purdue.edu, cs.orst.edu, and umd5.umd.edu.

Gerrit Huizenga
NeXT Workstation Support
Purdue University Computing Center
gerrit@mentor.cc.purdue.edu