Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!boulder!alumni.colorado.edu!fozzard From: fozzard@alumni.colorado.edu (Richard Fozzard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Next, 40, Sparc, 2 Summary: no uninformed invective, please Message-ID: <30017@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Date: 19 Nov 90 22:58:18 GMT References: <1990Nov12.135515@Atherton.COM> <11090@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 63 Nntp-Posting-Host: alumni.colorado.edu In article smithw@hamblin.ma th.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) writes: >This is no deal. Squeezing blood from the sparc turnip. 28.5 MIPS is >not particularly meaningful yet,and with a crapola interface and set-up >gymnastics. Educational price on these here is $9K +-$500. If you want This is just the sort of uninformed invective that prejudices many folks against the NeXT. I have been interested in getting NeXTs into our operation, have used one for a couple of months, had public demos, been to NUGs, etc. Invariably, the NeXT NuTS have spouted these sorts of idiocies and alienated my superiors and other decision-makers around here. [1] "Squeezing blood from the sparc turnip" This statement would be better applied to the aging 68xxx CISC architecture, not the deliberately *scalable* RISC SPARC design. [2] "28.5 MIPS is not particularly meaningful" Pretty lame. Have you actually *seen* one of these process a postscript file or do a ray-trace or even just launch a simple application? I have, and they really embarass even an '040 NeXT. Here at NOAA, we do climate simulations that can take days - don't tell anyone around here that 28 MIPS isn't meaningful. [3] "and with a crapola interface" Again, I must doubt that you've used OpenWindows. It is in many ways superior (and in many ways inferior, too) to NeXTStep; hardly is it "crapola". Above all, it will run on *anything* supporting X. (We have used it on Macs, HPs, DECs, and (obviously) Suns across a huge network, even across the country over the internet. So far, to my knowledge, anything developed in NeXTStep will run only on (you guessed it) other NeXTs. [4] "and set-up gymnastics" The only thing you're even part right about. The NeXT is plug-and-play alright, as long as you've got a homogenous network of NeXTs. As the prez of the local NUG (also a full-time Sun/UNIX/network guru for the university) found out when he tried to hook up my demo machine to an NFS network here, those set up gymnastics can be as bad as any other UNIX machine. And even if he had had the time to succeed hooking it up, all we could have done was share files. Forget about any application interoperability. Before criticizing Suns, Macs, etc. proponents of the NeXT should become familiar with the other machines and the needs of users. Then, the realizable benefits of the NeXT could be described. Above all, it must be realized that the NeXT is not the right machine for EVERY user, that it has a (dare I use that proscribed word?) niche. My advice to all you NuTS out there (assuming you'd like to see more NeXTs sold): take a lesson from Mac history and from Sun history. Put that revolutionary zeal into providing the machine with the wide range of software and interoperability with other OSs on the Mac and the Sun (respectively). A machine with the Mac's software and the Sun's open architecture AND the NeXT's development environment would be a tough one to beat. rich -- ======================================================================== Richard Fozzard "Serendipity empowers" Univ of Colorado/CIRES/NOAA R/E/FS 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 fozzard@boulder.colorado.edu (303)497-6011 or 444-3168