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From: knrgroup@garnet.berkeley.edu (Raymond group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Not another NeXT defector???!!!
Message-ID: <1990Nov9.084036.19576@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 90 08:40:36 GMT
References: <1990Nov9.004135.19072@midway.uchicago.edu>
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gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
>six months, huh?  Quite impressive indeed.  

Actually, six months is my optimistic estimate of when System 7.0 will be done.
The 040 machines may or may not be announced until later.  Who knows how
long you'll have to wait for a faster Mac.
>At what price? 
> You'd need a Mac IIfx with an 040, 8 MB RAM, and 105 MB hard
>>disk, all at a price of $5000 retail to approach the price/performance ratio
>>for a NeXT

>Complete BS!

Nope.  A NeXT with an 040 may draw its screen slower than a Mac with an 040.
However, you get the advantage of a consistent PostScript model for both
screen and printing on the NeXT.  For things like number crunching, the
NeXT will be just as fast as a Mac with an 040.  

8 MB RAM is 8 MB RAM.  You can run larger programs faster on the NeXT because
of the extra memory.  You also get virtual memory, allowing your programs to
be almost arbitrarily large.  

>...a 105 MB on a NeXT is more or less equivalent to a 30MB HD on a Mac,
>given the size of the required OS files on the NeXT.

Untrue.  The NeXT system only occupies 30-40 MB of the 105 MB drive.  The
other stuff on the drive is bundled goodies like WriteNow, Digital Webster,
Chess, et al.  Thus, you have 65-75 MB free if you move the bundled 
software to secondary media.  


This brings us to another point.  A $5000 NeXT comes with software that
would normally retail for over a thousand dollars.  You don't get this
software with a Mac IIfx.  

When all is said and done, the main advantages a $12,000 Mac IIfx has over
a $5000 NeXT is color, the ability to run Mac software, and expansion slots.
A $5000 NeXT has the advantage in terms of bundled software, built-in
Ethernet networking capability, two serial ports plus printer port (as 
opposed to two serial ports for the Mac, I believe), a standard Unix,
Display PostScript, nicer GUI, and the list goes on and on.  

Note that these are today's prices.  And note that the Mac IIfx has a
processor twice as slow as a NeXT today.  Who knows?  The price of the
Mac IIfx may go up even further with the addition of the 040 chip.
Of course, this would probably be economic suicide on Apple's part.