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From: brtmac@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett McCoy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: SPARCstation 2 --> workstation wars
Message-ID: <1990Oct20.004404.28918@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>
Date: 20 Oct 90 00:44:04 GMT
References: <9010180146.AA09967@mcs-server.gac.edu> <28337@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <7669@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <1990Oct19.181008.24196@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <2793@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>
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In <2793@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> jmann@angmar.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann) writes:

>Define "fast."  Sure, a SPARC-station is faster than a Mac or 68030 NeXT
>if what you mean by fast is "how long does it take to compile program X" or
>whatever.  If by "fast" you mean "how long does it take user X to do A,
>then go over and do B for a while, then learn new application C, then
>go back and paste some stuff from B to A" the Mac and the NeXT are both
>faster than the Sun.  And if by "fast" you mean "how long does it take
>to develop an application that does Z" well, the NeXT blows both machines
>away.                                          

"Fast" is in the eye of the beholder.  I would never even consider buying
a Mac since it doesn't have a real OS (by that I mean virtual memory,
multitasking, paging), but as for comparing a SPARC against a NeXT when
it comes to developing software I don't have any comparison since I've
never used a NeXT.  I do know that most of the things I want to do somebody
out on the net has usually already done it or done something close enough
that I can just modify it to do what I want it to do.  Nearly every program
that exists on the anonymous ftp archives will compile and run on a Sun
without to much trouble.  Can that be said of a NeXT?  And if you want to
use the complaint that the normal mortal can't use all of what is on the
net then I'll say that the normal mortal isn't going to be developing
software, they are going to be using what exists, and they are going to
be looking at how fast machine X does job A, not at how long it takes to
develop application A, and when it comes to actually performing the task,
a SPARC is going to blow away a Mac or '30 NeXT, and will probably outperform
a '40 NeXT.

--
Every day you scream at me to turn the music low.
But if you keep on screaming, you'll make me deaf, ya know. -- Judas Priest

Brett McCoy	brtmac@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu	NetNews Dictator