Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!oz.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely From: jgreely@oz.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: A kind word... Message-ID: Date: 23 Nov 89 15:36:41 GMT References: <4275@helios.ee.lbl.gov> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: J Greely Distribution: usa Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 49 In-reply-to: stefan@lbl-csam.arpa's message of 22 Nov 89 00:24:16 GMT In article <4275@helios.ee.lbl.gov> stefan@lbl-csam.arpa (Stefan gottschalk) writes: >Hmm. Everyone who experiences it says the NeXT has the best user >interface around. After all, just about everyone is accustomed to the >Mac interface, so the NeXT comes across like an old friend. You hang around with different people. Almost every day, I hear complaints about aspects of the NeXT design, quite a few related to the user interface. Comments about manual sections stained brown with design philosophy are among the milder things I hear (and say :-)). Once people get past the "gee, whiz" stage, they seem to find things a bit off-kilter. As for the Mac-to-NeXT transition being simple, don't bet the rent. I've watched experienced Mac users go nuts trying to figure out a NeXT, even if they also had substantial Unix experience (hi, Elizabeth!). The only place where a NeXT is clearly superior to the other machines in our environment is as a DTP workstation, and that's due in large part to Tomas Rokicki's TeX distribution. Even for that, the user has to learn yet another set of window system conventions, which resemble the Mac's only superficially (scrollbars, anyone?). >Well, frankly, I love my NeXT. But many of the people whose opinion I >respect most are very critical of the machine. Good for them! There's lots of room for improvement, and I have this recurring nightmare about what NeXT might do if no one complains when they find something they don't like (thank GHOD they let 0.8 out when they did!). I'm critical of the machine because it doesn't fit in with our environment well. It's gotten a lot better since 0.8, but there are still rough spots (some of them, oddly enough, brightly polished; I guess albedo is also in the eye of the beholder). >They say it won't (or shouldn't) survive. This upsets me. I need >something to rebut with. My usual response is that the only thing that could kill the company is the fall of western civilization (half :-)). The money and the names involved just aren't going to roll over and die. Even if a lot of people think they should :-). >So, I'd like to know who out there believes the NeXT has a future in a >world of Macintoshes, PCs, Sparcstations, etc., and why. Ask me again when the system is finished (1.1? 1.2?). -=- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)