Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!rca
From: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXTStep 2.0 Completed
Message-ID: <57237@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 90 21:19:34 GMT
References: <352@atncpc.UUCP>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 69

In article <352@atncpc.UUCP> bruce@atncpc.UUCP (Bruce Henderson) writes:
>[..]
>One of my favorites (and completely unexpected) is the improvement to 
>the SCSI drivers.  Today I hooked up an unformatted Wren V to my cube
>and booted from the ROM monitor.  It cheerfully reported that it was
>a Wren V, Sector size, model number, SCSI ID... (I thought geez...!)
>
>Then the workspace manager started.  An alert came up saying it was 
>unreadable (the Wren V), and would I like to format it?  I clicked 
>yes.  3 Minutes later the Workspace mounted it.  It works.... That
>simple.... It just works....
>

First some technical points:
Low-level formatting takes about 30 min. Thus NeXT does not do that
with OS 2.0. What NeXT does is simply build a new file system on the
drive as it is. This does not optimize the drive at all. We never
claimed that it is necessary to use our program to install a third
party drive, but it was and still is advisable to do so. Second our
program allows you to set several parameters such as caching and the
way automatic error reallocation is handled. This is also not done
through building a new file system. Thus the new OS makes things
easier, that's good, but it does not make our program obsolete.
At least we believe that an increase in speed of over 100% from the
worst to the best setting in addition to higher data security is
worthwile considering it as an option.



>So, for all of you bloodthirsty shareware authors who were dreaming 
>of charging people to format 3rd party hard disks... Find another
>source of income.
>
>AWESOME
>

Now to the personal part:

Your posting is more than insulting. Did you think about what these
'bloodthirsty' people do:
We encouraged dozens of people to buy third party hard drives, thereby
saving about $2000. If we hadn't told the net that we were successful
in installing a third party drive early on this year, many people
wouldn't have bought a NeXT at all as a reasonable configuration was
way to expensive for them. 
We took the risk of ruining our drives for the sake of making this
solution possible.
We, the bloodthirsty people, provided extensive technical support,
sometimes till 4am, even to people who never used our formatting tool.
Luckily, NeXT made it easier for the average user to install third
party drives. This will save us a lot of time in dealing with tedious
problems. Up to now, however, people asked us when they had problems.
Asking $45 for that is certainly not too much.

>[Organization: Ashton Tate NCPC, San Jose, CA.]

If someone out there is bloodthirsty then it might be companies like
Asthon-Tate with their law suits, but not us asking $45 when people
can save a couple thousand dollars by using our program.
And in case you shouldn't have realized it, one does not get rich this
way. 

Axel and Ronald 


h------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists
in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man."   G.B. Shaw   |  rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@browncog.bitnet