Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!kdp9565
From: kdp9565@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Keith D. Perkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Who will buy the NeXT
Keywords: NeXT
Message-ID: <21632@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 30 Nov 89 08:13:35 GMT
References: <964@abvax.UUCP>
Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP
Reply-To: kdp9565@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Keith D. Perkins)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 39

In article <964@abvax.UUCP> jaz@abvax.UUCP (Jack A. Zucker) writes:
>Has anyone bought a system from Businessland or are most of you NeXT users
>college students, etc. 

	The Businessland store in Houston has sold some, I've heard. In
fact Compaq supposibly bought 10 NeXT's. I've heard it's their policy to
buy new machines, but I'm hoping that this means that some company besides
IBM is thinking about licensing the NeXTstep. I'm also hoping that when
the new NeXT comes out, NeXT corp. will drop the Businessland price of the
old model to the $6500 range.
	About whether the NeXT will sell or not, it depends on a lot of
factors. IMHO, the biggest obsticle to overcome is the compatibility
problems. If the NeXT had a DOS or MAC window that it could open and 
run those operating systems programs, it would sell a lot better. It 
is hard for a company that has sunk some untold tens of thousands of $'s
into systems and software to justify buying a computer that has limited
compatibility at best with their old systems. There are still a lot of
computers out there that are not connected to any form of LAN network, and
this means transfering a program or document between two computers still
is fastest by way of a floppy disk. The only way currently for the NeXT
to transfer files is either by modem or Ethernet, both of which are rather
hard ways for an unschooled novice (ie: a secretary) to transfer files.
	Luckily, Unix, DOS, and the MAC systems are currently in a state of
flux. In DOS there is DOS 4.0, Microsoft Windows 3.0, and OS/2. Variations 
abound depending on the hardware and options added to the OS. The MAC's
movement t7.0 is going to be interesting. The movement from Postscript,
the necessity of 2MB of RAM, and the changing of the adressing system
is going to be a pain for most developers. Unix is in the worst position,
though. With everybody and their dog trying to build a GUI, the NeXT has
the best chance of winning here. I have yet to read an article that has
not praised the NeXT for having an outstanding interface. Unfortunatly,
the interface alone won't sell the NeXT, though it might help if it gets
licensed out to other companies.
>
>jaz@calvin.icd.ab.com

Keith Perkins
The University of Texas at Austin
KDP9565@doc.cc.utexas.edu