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From: yoo@well.sf.ca.us (Young-Kyu Yoo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Not another NeXT defector???!!!
Message-ID: <21792@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 22 Nov 90 08:45:03 GMT
References: <1990Nov11.210537.1563@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1990Nov12.004321.21385@agate.berkeley.edu> <2945@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM>
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
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I used to post from knrgroup@garnet.berkeley.edu (Raymond group).  I'm now
posting from my own account on the WELL.  By the way, the name is Young, not
Raymond.

I thought that this thread had disappeared, but its back with renewed vigor,
thanks to some comments by Norman Goodger.

He writes:
>...If the machines underlying OS is Unix, it is virtually impossible to
>shield a user from having to have some knowledge of how it works if they
>own the machine

By the same token, if a machine's underlying OS is the intricate jumble that
is at the heart of the Mac OS, would you say it is impossible to hide the
mess that underlies the pretty face of the Mac?  

>The only gross misperception as I see it is the one that says if I own a
>NeXT its OS is Unix with a spiffy interface that I'll never have to
>look beyond to make full and complete use of the NeXT system

Who ever said this was the case?  I've always argued that if you want to do
Mac-like things with a NeXT, you can ignore Unix.  If you want, on the other
hand, to do things you didn't dream about on the Mac, learn Unix and enjoy
the extra power.  In other words, Unix will let you tap the full power of the
NeXT...power that is just not there on the Mac because the Mac doesn't have
a decent standard Unix.


>At least the Mac's ease of use is fairly universal from the OS to the
>applications and not trying to place a pretty face on Unix

Why the hostility towards Unix?  At any rate, NeXTStep, NOT Unix, is the
user environment for the NeXT.  Think of Unix in terms of MPW for the Mac
(although, of course, Unix lets you do a lot more than MPW).

>...Apple already has networking.  DSP is overrated

Apple's networking, unfortunately, is nons-standard.  The NeXT comes with
built-in Ethernet, the standard for the rest of us.  Why would you say the
DSP is overrated?  You don't think people want to do things with compact
disc quality sound and perform extra-fast matrix algebra?  True, people on
PCs usually don't do this stuff.  But that's because they can't and not
because it wouldn't be real nice too.  The same goes for video.  Very few
people do video, but NeXTDimension will not put high-quality yet easy-to-use
video processing in the hands of more people.

>Raymond [the name is Young], this is getting a little old now. This is a
>completely subjective thing.  I can easily say that 7.0's interface blows
>NeXTStep away

Can you say it with a straight face though?  I've only heard descriptions of
the mythical beta beast that is 7.0; but from what I hear, it ain't nearly as
pleasing to the eye or the brain as the NeXT's old OS.  This topic has
been discussed before in this thread.

>NExt doesn't create its own CPU's...so if 60 mhz chips come available,
>every one will have them, Apple included

But NeXT may very well have them first or be the first with a machine that
runs on them.  This is the case with the present 25 MHz 040s.  NeXT is
beating out HP by at least several months and Apple by at least half a year
from the looks of it (i.e., the lack of anything even unofficial from 
Apple, Inc. on the 040 Macs).  Look for new and even faster NeXTs around
Fall.

Cheers,
Young-Kyu Yoo
well!yoo@apple.com   or  yoo@well.sf.ca.us