Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!psuvax1!news
From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Subject: Re: NeXT Review;Quite a machine, but not a Mac
In-Reply-To: stan@toaster.SFSU.EDU's message of 20 Mar 90 05:48:21 GMT
Message-ID: <Ety5g43@cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet)
Organization: Penn State University Computer Science
References: <404@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 90 08:03:26 GMT
Lines: 45

In article <404@toaster.SFSU.EDU> stan@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Stan Osborne) writes:

	      We all know good things take time to develop, especially  good
	      software.   In  another  12 months many of the limitations and
	      problems mentioned here are  likely  to  disappear.  Hopefully
	      NeXT won't introduce to many new ones, either.



	      BACKGROUND

	      The event was hosted by David St. Pierre,  Pacific  Bell.  The
	      introduction  was  done  by  Richard L. Miller, District Sales
	      Manager, NeXT. The demo was done by Michael A. Fried,  Systems
	      Engineer,  NeXT.  The  demo was a much smoother, better organ-
	      ized, and prepared version of the demo  given  to  faculty  at
	      SFSU over 1 year ago.

	      In addition to working as  a  consultant  to  a  Pacific  Bell
	      software  development  group,  I'm  employeed part-time by the
	      SFSU  CS  Department.   My  familiarity  with  NeXT  equipment
	      started over one year ago when the Computer Science Department
	      at SFSU received its first NeXT system.  The first system  the
	      CS  Dept.  purchased  was  a  "developer"  configuration.  The
	      software on this system has made the progression from software
	      release  .8  to .9, and from .9 to the current 1.0 release. We
	      are quite happy with the equipment and the software and recom-
	      mend the system to others when the circumstances warrant.  The
			                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
	      SFSU CS Dept now has four NeXTs, 2 in labs and  2  in  faculty
	      offices.

	[MUCH DELETED]

So, when do the circumstances warrant buying a Next?  After reading
your article you have me convinced that the Mac is definitely the way
to go.  A 40Mhz Mac IIfx sans graphics coprocessor is looking pretty
good.  Where does NeXT fit in the market?  Will NeXT be here in 12
months?  $600 million can only go so far!  NeXT knew software was
going to be their big problem.  Deja vu Steve?  It took a year before
there was a good word processor for the Mac, or for that matter much
of anything besides Mac Draw and Mac Write?  If DTP isn't a niche for
NeXT then what is?  Can you say DeLorean?

-Mike