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From: joerg@krynos.mcs.anl.gov
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Next NeXT
Message-ID: <4000010@krynos>
Date: 29 Mar 90 01:57:00 GMT
References: <205146@<1990Mar27>
Lines: 29
Nf-ID: #R:<1990Mar27:205146:krynos:4000010:000:1625
Nf-From: krynos.mcs.anl.gov!joerg    Mar 28 19:57:00 1990


 NeXT listens.  This is neither a wild guess nor a fact know to me,
but hey, comp.sys.next is free market research -- albeit slanted
more towards the UNIX guy in the .gov or .edu workplaces. They have
their business customers to go after too.  Anyway, they listen.
 It seems that NeXT is trying pretty hard to not acquire the image
of a "vaporware criminal".  Of course, rumors get started and then
someone reads it as fact, and suddenly NeXT's reputation suffers,
but they can't do anything about that really.
 Someone made a very good point in saying that NeXT should give
an idea of the DIRECTION their products are headed, if they
are reluctant to discuss the actual content of their plans.
The idea here is to give enough of the "spirit" of new NeXT
releases that potential customers feel reassured, but to make it
very clear that NeXT will not discuss the specifics of any new 
release or make commitments on when it will be availible to the
public.  That's a fine line to tread, but with careful forethought,
the balancing-act could work out very profitably for NeXT.
 Someone else also made a good point in that all this speculation
under NeXT's "gag order" is a big waste of time unless people have
substantially reliable rumors.  Why don't we concentrate on telling
NeXT (and the rest of the NeXT software development world) what
we'd like to see in the ways of hardware and software, and organize
groups ourselves to write the software we want?

 David Joerg
 (joerg@alliant.mcs.anl.gov)
 /* I only grudgingly take responsibility for my actions,   */
 /* because nobody else will. (including argonne nat'l lab) */