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From: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Meat and Potatoe Programs
Message-ID: <26544@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 20 Jul 89 20:31:41 GMT
References: <5527@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <5527@oregon.uoregon.edu> joe@oregon.uoregon.edu (Joe St Sauver) writes (among other things):
>
>Having a lot of friends who are business oriented, and, recalling (myself)
>that VisiCalc is what got the whole microcomputer circus rolling in the 
>first place, does it strike anyone as slightly odd that there's no spreadsheet
>distributed with the NeXT?
>
>Maybe some of you can sympathize -- people come in and see the new machine, and
>then the first thing they (the business types) say is, "So, can it run Lotus or
>Excel or SuperCalc?" 

Lotus has announced that they are working on a spreadsheet product for the
NeXT.  According to marketing types (probably) at either NeXT or Lotus (I
can't recall which, but does it matter?), it will be the be-all and end-all
of spreadsheets.

It also stands to reason that a product like Wingz, which is programmed
from a kernel so as to simplify portability to different platforms, will
find a home at NeXT some day (the company will soon be shipping Mac,
A/UX and OS/2 versions).

And while Bill Gates has looked down his public nose at the NeXT,
Microsoft is a big company and respects the bottom line.  If the bottom
line gets fatter by porting Excel to the NeXT, look for a kiss-and-make-up
turn to the plot.  It'll all come down to how well the NeXT does
commercially.

John Heckendorn
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