Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!gatech!udel!princeton!set!bskendig
From: bskendig@set.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Not another NeXT defector???!!!
Keywords: next vs mac
Message-ID: <3818@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 4 Nov 90 04:54:48 GMT
References: <2909@unccvax.uncc.edu> <27337f93-fe.1comp.sys.mac.misc-1@tronsbox.xei.com>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University  PQC PTC CIT EECS SCI
Lines: 72

In article <27337f93-fe.1comp.sys.mac.misc-1@tronsbox.xei.com> dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Francis Heffernan) writes:
>|MesgID: 2909@unccvax.uncc.edu
>|You Macsters need to talk me out of this one! I'm actually seriously
>|considering defecting to the NeXT camp and buying one of their 040
>|machines. Why should I get a IIci with A/UX instead of a NeXTstation?
>
>	I'm an Amiga owner, but I'll help you anyway.

And I own a Mac SE and muck with its guts from time to time;
I'll see what advice I can offer.

>a) Wait until the 040 is out of beta testing at the very least;
>they've still got bugs to squash.

Good idea -- but once the '040 is done, it's a better chip than
the '030...

>b) Word is you can't even GET a NeXTStation until February- they're backlogged
>with orders.

I suppose that would be true, although I haven't heard any estimation
of the length of the backlog.

>c) I'm no big fan of A/UX, but it looks like a more useful 
>version of Unix than what NeXT is fobbing off.

On what do you base that judgement?  I've never seen A/UX running, but
I consider the Unix available on the NeXT to be at least as good as
that I use on Suns and Irises.  Besides, Apple's tactics against IBM
(that a GUI on a PC is an add-on, where it's built into the Apple) can
be used against it here -- if you want A/UX you have to buy it and run
it on top of the Mac operating system, whereas the NeXT is built
around Unix to begin with yet still offers similar (but more powerful)
Macintosh-like abilities.

>d) If you've got a Mac, you won't have to abandon all your old software;
>you'll be able to run it without changing machines all the time.

Well, I might as well keep using my Commodore 128; why have to go out
and buy more powerful, more capable software for a Macintosh?  ;)

Really -- there comes a time when you have to decide if it's worth it
to move up to a better platform.  Is the NeXT really better for what
you want to do?

>e) Who wants to be the only person in 20 miles to own a NeXT?

And if I had followed *that* reasoning, I'd be using an IBM PC
right now.  ;)

If I had to choose a new computer right now, it would be a
NeXTstation.  Without a moment's hesitation.

- 92 dpi, very large, 4 color greyscale screen
- 68040 processor
- 2.88M floppy drive (can read MS-DOS [and Mac?])
- 105M hard drive
- runs Unix right out of the box
- audio input
- DSP built in
- Ethernet built in

All for, at university prices, $3200, I believe.

It seems almost too good to be true.

     << Brian >>

| Brian S. Kendig      \ Macintosh |   Engineering,   | bskendig             |
| Computer Engineering |\ Thought  |  USS Enterprise  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU
| Princeton University |_\ Police  | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET         |
"It's not that I don't have the work to *do* -- I don't do the work I *have*."