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From: knrgroup@garnet.berkeley.edu (Raymond group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Not another NeXT defector???!!!
Message-ID: <1990Nov7.212944.11043@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 7 Nov 90 21:29:44 GMT
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khcg0492@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kenneth Holden Chang)
>If you have a NeXT at home, you had better know Unix, because you are
>effectively system manager for that computer.  When something goes
>wrong you need some clue about Unix to fix it.  Also when you add new
>equipment.

If you use a NeXT to do Mac things, there is no system administration 
involved.  You plug the NeXT in and use it like you would a Mac.  You
don't even have to create user accounts; merely use the single "me"
account that comes set up.

As for when something goes wrong with the machine, pray tell what you 
would do with your Mac?  If it's a system crash, I reboot, and rebooting
is as easy to do on the Mac as the NeXT.  If something happens to a file
or files, I use ResEdit or Fedit on the Mac.  It seems to me that 
knowledge of ResEdit or Fedit is as much arcana as the skill to edit a
Unix system file.  If something goes wrong with a disk on the Mac, I use
one of the disk recovery utilities.  Likewise on the NeXT.  Finally, if
something goes wrong with the Mac hardware, I send my machine to the
shop.  Opening up the Mac voids the warranty.  Likewise, I would send a
broken NeXT to the shop.  Happily, the NeXTs I use at work have never
broken down.

As for adding new equipment, as someone else pointed out, NeXT 2.0 allows
many peripherals, including popular hard drives, to be plug-and-play.  
The fact is that adding anything to a Mac is a tough job whose toughness is
obscured by the fact that Mac peripherals come with the software that does
the set-up for you.  Why do you think that a Mac hard disk is 50-100% more
expensive in many cases than an equivalent PC hard disk?  The Mac hard disk
manufacturer had to add special hardware and software to make his drive
compatible with the Mac.   As for the NeXT, peripherals designed specifically
for the NeXT are mostly plug-and-play.  The great advantage the NeXT has
over the Mac is that you can also use peripherals NOT designed with the
NeXT in mind.  With some Unix, you can use all sorts of neat peripherals
that would be virtually impossible or a nightmare to personally connect to
a Mac.  

Take another example.  Does a normal user know how to use a modem with a
Mac without a program like Red Ryder or Microphone to connect and communicate
with the modem?  I think the answer is a resounding NO!  On the other hand,
I'm using a modem with the NeXT without the help of any outside software.
I run the standard terminal emulator and use a Unix program called tip for
dialing.  If you don't want to use Unix, Microphone II, Communicae, 
HitchHiker, and other easy-to-use communication programs are already 
available for the NeXT.