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From: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Third Party Software Pricing
Message-ID: <1989Dec5.020838.713@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 89 02:08:38 GMT
References: <21354@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1989Dec4.015422.21768@agate.berkeley.edu> <5725@umd5.umd.edu>
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In article <5725@umd5.umd.edu> feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman) writes:
>In article <1989Dec4.015422.21768@agate.berkeley.edu> izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes:
>>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.
>
>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.

Yes, I know that is the usual definition, but to me ANY 
computer that is primarily used by one person at a time IS
a personal computer.
Most of the Apps which make NeXT unique; WriteNow, Mathematica with
front end, Edit, Mail, FrameMaker, WorkSpace Manager can be used
by only one person at the console.
For these applications, NeXT is single-user.
So are Suns, Decs as far as the nice windowing applications are
concerned.  Thus, they are personal computers.
FTP, NFS, rlogin, mail services don't count
as multi-user to my eyes.

I just said the above in the context that computers for the 90's
will all be multi-tasking, and in the hope that this funny word
"workstation" will go away by then.

>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

I completely agree with you on this.  I suppose they were just
unsure about the reliability of the hard disks with the continuous
operation.  I take it that the above statement is targeted only
for users who use it as a stand-alone machine.

Izumi Ohzawa
izumi@violet.berkeley.edu