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From: asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: The Late Great Apple //
Message-ID: <5620@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 26 Sep 90 05:24:41 GMT
References: <waz4PZ600awLNAxqcV@andrew.cmu.edu>
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 34
Cc:


>You people wanna real machine? Look at NeXT. The first NeXT cube was
>like the //gs... lots of potential in the hardware with the graphics
>and sound, but too damned slow and not configured well enough. But
>where Apple neglected, NeXT pushed. Check out the new NeXTstations.
>Bundled software, ready to use from the box, complete with monitor and
>hard-drive storage, 8 megs, 25 MHz 68040, Ethernet, Mach-UNIX, price $3995 w/o
>edutcational discount.

I just want to point out a few things to make sure people don't get
misinformation.  The basic NeXTstation (cheapest model) costs $4995.
Educational discounts are running it in the $3200 range.  I've heard
that the cheapest discount is $2995 (depends on how many the university
commits to ordering).

>And the damned thing will be able to switch flawlessly into the X
>environment and back again. Run all the famous Gnu software under
>X11R4. NeXT came through. Blows the Mac //fx out of the water; can't
>even get an empty box from apple at that price. 'Nuff said. 

This is absolutely wrong.  No X stuff comes with the NeXT's, NONE.  Gnu
Emacs and the Gnu Debugger come with the NeXT.  I believe gcc comes with
the NeXT also, but not X.  There ARE folks working on X ports to the
NeXT, and there is already a version out there, but it runs on top of
the NeXT environment, which will slow it down a bit.  I'm not quite sure
of the compatibility with X stuff.  There is some guy working on a new
version that will hopefully be more compatible (the old one was R3 I
think).  Ideally, the people working on the new one are trying to make
the whole interface X, and not have to run X on top of NeXTStep.

Just wanted to clear up a few facts.  The NeXT IS hot, extremely!  Makes
Apple pricing look like they DON'T want to sell computers.

-k