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From: jalkio@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga vs NeXT
Message-ID: <3953.2737f7ba@cc.helsinki.fi>
Date: 7 Nov 90 12:02:01 GMT
References: <405@shrike.AUSTIN.LOCKHEED.COM> <1990Oct31.160214.2131@engin.umich.edu> <3949.273715c2@cc.helsinki.fi> <1990Nov6.235708.17534@engin.umich.edu>
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 72

In article <1990Nov6.235708.17534@engin.umich.edu>, gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) writes:
> In article <3949.273715c2@cc.helsinki.fi> jalkio@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
> 
>>Oh, and because NeXT has Unix as standard, you don't have to spend
>>several hundred (thousand?) bucks to get Unix.
> 
> Amiga OS comes with the systems that they sell.  It is very UNIX like
> in many respects, but is much more flexible and has a much slimmer kernel,
> has better scheduling, etc.
> Amiga will be releasing their own UNIX boxes soon enough and the price
> will be included in the price of the systems.  The price of UNIX
> is in the price of the NeXTs.
> 
Hmm. I thought that you could get Unix for A3000 as upgrade. I just
thought it could cost a bit.

> 
>>BTW, you didn't even talk about the DSP processor, which is a very
>>strong point for NeXT if you intend to do music or electronic analysis.
> 
> There are DSPs available for the Amiga.

Yeah, quite a few things are AVAILABLE, but they are not free. They
might even be quite expensive. And because NeXT has it as default, many
applications can support it.

> 
>>price/performance ratio, but NeXTstation is FAR better.
> 
> This is simply because it is 040.  Please don't comare 040 machines to
> 030 machines.  Everybody knows that the 040 simply kills the 030 in
> performance.

I was talking about price/performance. If you can get a 68040-box
cheaper than a 68030-box (and the 68040-box even had better
configuration), the 68040-box certainly is better price/performance.

> 
>>Reclaimer: I have now an Atari MEGA4. But I will soon have a
>>NeXTstation, there is no serious competitor for it. (Only weak point is
>>limited availability of commercial software, but the software base grows
>>surprisingly fast.)
> 
> How soon?  Remember the 040 is NOT shipping in quantity yet.  One thing
> that I love about the NeXT is the Interface Builder.  This is not that
> big of a concern to me though since Open Look has something similar
> but in my opinion  better.

Well, the software base grows all the time. One reason it grows faster
than you'd excpect from a 22000 volume computer is that every machine
has complete development enviroment bundled. And another reason is that
NeXT is said to have the most sophisticated programming environment
around (Word perfect reserved 12 months time for doing the NeXT
conversion of WP5.0 but they got it ready in 6 months).
> 
I am not bashing Amigas. I just think that NeXT is an incredible machine
for it's price (and even if don't think about the price).

I think that this kind of posts are useful at least in one way. In
comp.sys.mac.misc some people have said that they have sold their old
MAC's and got a NeXTstation for about the same money. And they had read
about NeXT in a MAC vs. NeXT thread.

> 		Thanks, Ralph
> 
> 
> Ralph Seguin			gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu
> 536 South Forest Apt. #915	gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu
> Ann Arbor, MI 48104		(313) 662-4805


	Jouni Alkio, University of Helsinki, Finland.