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From: knrgroup@garnet.berkeley.edu (Raymond group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: WANTED: objective info. on NeXT vs. Amiga
Message-ID: <1990Nov10.080947.22492@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 10 Nov 90 08:09:47 GMT
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Can't say that my opinions are completely objective, since I'm a NeXT
software developer, but here's my two bit worth.

jjfeiler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (John Jay Feiler) writes in a 
comparison of the NeXT and Amiga:
>NeXT:  Mach, not UNIX, but close.  Won't be able to take advantage of the
>"shrink-wrapped" unix binaries to be available soon.....

NeXT has 4.3BSD Unix with a Mach kernel.  4.3BSD Unix is considered by many
to be the most complete and powerful Unix around.  It is also the most
popular in academic computing.  The Mach kernel has facilities for things
like parallel processing.  

Which "shrink-wrapped" unix binaries do you refer to?  The NeXT should be
able to run most 4.3BSD unix binaries.

> [the NeXT] comes with Objective-C, which has its good and bad points 
>compared to C++...

The NeXT now comes with a C/C++/Objective-C compiler.  You can compile 
straight C++ code with this compiler. 

>I believe most GNU stuff is already ported, as well as lex, yacc, etc.

Yep, all the standard GNU stuff is there on the NeXT, including emacs.
lex, yacc, sed, etc.  also all come standard with 4.3BSD Unix and the NeXT.

DLB101@psuvm.psu.edu (Dwaine VanBibber) writes:
>>Price is a big factor.  I'm a student $4000 ballpark.

If color is not absolutely essential, you can get a NeXT and some extra
hardware for this sum of money.  A 400 dpi NeXT laser printer is around 
$1200-1300 with an educational discount.  A NeXTstation is $3000-$3500,
depending on the school.  

>MS-DOS emulation is a MUST

SoftPC will be available in February for the NeXT.  It claims 100% 
MS-DOS compatibility, and I hear it will run MS-DOS software as fast as a
decent 286 machine.


[To be continued...our system's going down for maintenance]