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From: feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Third Party Software Pricing
Message-ID: <5725@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 89 17:43:19 GMT
References: <21354@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1989Dec4.015422.21768@agate.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 85

In article <1989Dec4.015422.21768@agate.berkeley.edu> izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes:
>In article <21354@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> pff@beach.cis.ufl.edu () writes:
>>personal computers ($100's).  He said that NeXT encourages third party
>>developers to treat the cube as a personal computer and to price their
>>products accordingly.
>
>Good for NeXT!  I always thought 'workstation' is a silly word.
>NeXT Personal Computer is fine with me.  Let Sun and other vendors
>indulge in workstation snobbery.

Pricing software using the PC model may be a good thing, but considering the
NeXT a PC isn't.

The words "pc" and "workstation" have certain connotations associated with
them.  In general (in my fertile mind, at least), a pc is a single user,
single-tasking, computer, providing services primarily to the person sitting
at the keyboard.  It is the toaster of computers.  Not that that is bad, as
toasters are needed.  Workstations, on the other hand, are usually
multi-tasking, multi-user, networked computers, and provide services to
users on the network as well as the person at the keyboard.

The NeXT is a multi-user, multi-tasking workstation, which has a finely
crafted user interface that can make it appear to be a toaster to those who
would like to see it as such -- and a very nice toaster at that.  The
problem is that NeXT, itself, appears to be somewhat schizophrenic about
just what their computer is.  

The NeXT, like other workstations, can provide many services to local as
well as networked users.  It can be used to send and receive electronic
mail, mount and export NFS file systems, be the source and target of remote
logins and file transfers, be a print server, etc.  All of these powerful,
important, workstation-type services require that the NeXT be turned on
(obvious, eh?).

The question is why, on page seven of the "User's Reference" manual, does it
say "It's a good idea to turn off the computer if you don't expect to use it
for a long time, such as overnight."?  There is not so much as a single
sentence discussing the cons of turning the NeXT off.  It might be
acceptable to turn off an isolated, non-networked, single-user NeXT, but
that is not the environment in which most of the computers are going to be
used.  It is not so much that this sentence will cause the end of the world,
but it is indicative of the toaster philosophy, and a much larger
problem.

NeXT continues to advertise electronic mail as one of the pluses of their
system, and their mail app is kinda cute, but have you ever tried sending
mail to or receiving mail from a system that isn't turned on?  If I were
trying to converse with another NeXT user on the other side of the world (or
at least a few time zones away) via email, perhaps over a flakey network,
and we both followed NeXT's instructions on powering down the machine
overnight, the window of opporunity might be such that we never get each
other's mail, or at least not get it in a timely manner.

The same PC/toaster mentality is probably responsible for the fact that the
NeXT won't reboot automatically after a power loss.  It makes using the NeXT
as a server a headache.  Buy a UPS, hope that you don't have any power
losses:-), or pay someone to run to around to all of the NeXTs on campus and
press the power key after a loss:-).  Ever try dialing into a NeXT after
a power failure?  I tied --  it wasn't very successful :-(

And then there's security.  If you lock up a toaster in a room, for the most
part, it is safe.  Unfortunately, the same is not true for a networked
workstation.  If only NeXT were directly on the Internet -- then, maybe,
they wouldn't be so qucik to flag me as a security weenie.  

It's not just a design fault, it's a problem with the philosiphy of the
computer.  In their effort to hide that mean, nasty, UNIX workstation
underneath, and present a nice, friendly toaster facade, NeXT has
over-toasterized.  

This has been a point of debate between some of us and NeXT since the early
days of 0.8 -- almost a year ago.  From 0.8 to 1.0, some of the
toaster-based problems have been removed (Thanks, NeXT!), but the philosophy
still remains.  I like my NeXT.  I like my workstation.  I like all of the
people at NeXT that I have met or conversed with.  Now if only they would
stop treating the NeXT like a toaster. 
	
...
>Izumi Ohzawa
>izumi@violet.berkeley.edu

Sorry, Izumi, but you hit a nerve.

   Mark