Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ziploc!eps From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NeXT Review;Quite a machine, but not a Mac Message-ID: <406@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Date: 20 Mar 90 21:55:33 GMT References: <404@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) Organization: San Francisco State University Lines: 30 In article J Greely writes: >> o SLIP is not easily available > >I can't argue with this one. There has been a working SLIP driver >for quite some time, and I haven't been able to get ahold of it. >Phooey. > >People with NeXTs at home, unless they are associated with a >university, are unlikely to be able to make any use of SLIP. Better >yet, without a fair amount of Unix knowledge, it's not going to do >them much good. Since NeXT is trying to build a computer for the >naive user, I'm not surprised that it's not bundled. 1) In the San Francisco Bay Area, BARRNET is offering low-cost SLIP service--and not just to Universities. While a bit pricey for home use, quite reasonable for small business customers. Don't forget AlterNet either. Besides, no one said that you had to be Internet-connected to use SLIP. Lots of places use TCP/IP in-house. 2) As for "not quite a Mac," the A/UX 2.0 literature released on 3/19/1990 states that SLIP is included and supported. [ I'm not just looking for SLIP support; I expect NeXT to keep up with things. Right now that means SLIP with Van Jacobson's Header Compression. Soon it will mean PPP. Hopefully one day we'll all be able to get ISDN-BRI at home (56Kb all-digital). ] -=EPS=-