Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!cynic!curt From: curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Curt Sampson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NeXT Limitations? Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 90 19:45:29 GMT References: <61300046@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Organization: Mad Artists' Technological Hangout, Vancouver, B.C. Lines: 39 gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > What are the main limitations of the software and hardware for NeXT > machines? I suspect there is a serious limitation in the malleability > of the user interface and UNIX. For instance, you can do the > following to a mac: > [large list of items deleted] > > Can I do all these things without hacking the NeXT kernel? That seems > to be the big disadvantage about most UNIX systems I've seen -- not > enough malleability without recompiling the kernel. Does the NeXT have > the concept of an "INIT" (user-installed boot-time patch)? The mac > has some dumb limitations: > > 3. Zillions of special-cases must be made to get software to work > (does this machine have color quickdraw? Are we running > multifinder? Are their multiple monitors? How much memory > can we work with? etc. etc. etc.) > 6. Broken printing architecture I think you've just listed some of the reasons why you would *not* want to do some of those things you described in your first list on the NeXT. Keep in mind that the NeXT is a multitasking system. If you use a device driver, you're safe. What if you just skip right by it and some other program tries to do the same? What if someone replaces their 2 MB floppy drive with a 12 MB floppy drive? What if I'm using an important floppy and some idiot on another login decides to run that floppy format that goes right by the device driver, thus killing my disk? The Mac, as nice as some of its features are, seems to be one big hack in the systems software department. I still wish that my fax software could run reliably in the background without crashing occasionally. cjs curt@cynic.UUCP | "The unconscious self is the real genius. curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca | Your breathing goes wrong the minute your {uunet|ubc-cs}!van-bc!cynic!curt | conscious self meddles with it." --GBS