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From: knrgroup@garnet.berkeley.edu (Raymond group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Not another NeXT defector???!!!
Message-ID: <1990Nov7.071044.21361@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 7 Nov 90 07:10:44 GMT
References: <1990Nov6.222023.8572@midway.uchicago.edu> <1990Nov07.040655.15672@ecst.csuchico.edu>
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tempest@ecst.csuchico.edu (Kenneth K.F. Lui) writes:
>When printing large jobs, I hear that the cube slows down quite a bit
>as the image is being generated and blasted out to the printer.

True of the old cube.  But not of the new.  Printing jobs have been assigned
lower priority as background tasks and the user will be free to use the
computer during printing.  As someone else mentions, with a 15 Mips
processor, there's a lot of CPU cycles to waste.  

>Perhaps in the future, they'll introduce a PostScript printer.

Or how about delegating the job to a separate processor that would still be
on the NeXT main processor board.  

On the issue of the NeXT as a home computer, Kenneth K.F. Lui writes:
>I have to agree with gfr_robert on this one.  At this point, I'm not
>sure how I can mount the optical disk--well, yeah, I can mount it,
>but where will it show up.
Kenneth goes on to discuss the complexities of using optical disks on the
NeXT.


First, the Mac doesn't offer the option of an eraseable optical as media.
Secondly, if you're running your operating system from the optical, you
are a glutton for punishment and deserve all the complexities that this
may entail :-).  

At any rate, these issues are largely irrelevant because the typical home
user is not going to require an eraseable/writeable optical drive.  
Moreover, the new NeXTs come with good ole floppy drives and not the 
opticals.  CD-ROM drives are also now available for the NeXT.  

As I've argued before, the NeXT is as easy to use or easier if you are doing
things you would do on a Mac.  However, if you want to take advantage of a
NeXT's extra power and expandability, you'll want to learn some Unix.  The
average user, however, will never have to say the "U" word.  

The NeXT is not explicitly targeted at home computer users.  But this is
probably due to price more than any issue of ease-of-use.  At any rate,
anyone who can post a note a Usenet has more than enough technical
expertise to use a NeXT effectively.