Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!silver!hughes
From: hughes@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (larry hughes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Will the Next sell?
Message-ID: <30217@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 89 18:23:00 GMT
References: <4283@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Sender: root@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Reply-To: hughes@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (larry hughes)
Distribution: na
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 42

In article <4283@helios.ee.lbl.gov> tierney@lbl-csam.arpa (Brian Tierney [SFSU Computer Science Dept]) writes:
>
>Second, why Joe average will never buy one:
>    It's too damn expensive, and a $1000 AT clone run's all the
>software he needs.

Today.  Not tomorrow.  In the early 80's, people were saying "Why
by an IBM PC, when my C/PM system runs all the software I need?"

>Third, the business community:
>   Here, I'm not sure, but it seems most company's would rather spend
>$4000 for a 386 machine running Xenix and an 80M drive than $10,000
>for a Next with a 330M drive. We'll see...

I don't agree...give a dog and pony show of a NeXT and a '386/Xenix
machine to a team of high executives.  See which one they think is
sexiest.  (After all, which one is a preppy black cube with voicemail?)

>Is there another major group I'm forgetting (remember, Universities
>don't really count, they get such a big discount).

They do count!  In my opinion, Sun wouldn't have made it to where it is
today without the interest (and dollars) of universities.

>So in general, the Next seems to be not powerful enough for the scientific
>community, and too expensive for everbody else.

I don't think the scientific community is the target market.  As far
as expense goes, what isn't expensive at first run?  It's not fair
to judge it this way, in my opinion, for at least two more years.

Thanks for your comments and ideas, though!  I don't mean to argue,
just want to provide an alternate viewpoint.

 //=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\\
|| Larry J. Hughes, Senior Programmer ||  hughes@silver.bacs.indiana.edu   ||
||        Indiana University          ||                                   ||
||   University Computing Services    ||  "The person who knows everything ||
||    750 N. State Road 46 Bypass     ||     has a lot to learn."          ||
||      Bloomington, IN  47405        ||                                   ||
||         (812) 855-9255             ||  Disclaimer: See quote above.     ||
 \\=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=//