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From: yoo@well.sf.ca.us (Young-Kyu Yoo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Sorry Guys, There is NO WAY!
Keywords: AMIGA 3000 vs NEXT
Message-ID: <22055@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 8 Dec 90 20:01:58 GMT
References: <14701@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <21993@well.sf.ca.us> <23853@grebyn.com>
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 40

>Where's [the NeXT's] NTSC compatible video output?

Don't know about NTSC compatibility, but the video i/o on the NeXTDimension
is something to see.  Realtime JPEG compression, the 80 MFLOP i860 to drive
the display, the ability to hook up to a VCR, laserdisc, Camcorder, et al
without additional boards.  

>Where's it's *second* floppy drive bay?  You must find one floppy drive
>or zero for those with the optical disk) pretty limiting.

The NeXT ain't a PC.  It's amazing how much more you can do with an optical
and a hard disk than a floppy and a harddisk (kind of silly to even talk about
two floppies).  The new machines now all come with a 2.88MB floppy and at 
least a 105 MB hard disk (there's also 330, 660, and now, a 200 MB hard disk
option).  Much more functional than 2 floppy system.  I don't know what the
answer to this question is, but can you fit two floppies and a 105 MB hard
disk into the case for an Amiga 3000ux?  You can always get external drives.
But this is also true for the NeXT.

>Where's your MS-DOS bridgecard?

With SoftPC 2.0 for $500 and with 100% AT compatibility and emulation at
speeds comparable to a 12-16 MHz 286 machine, who needs a bridgecard?
SoftPC 2.0 is due out in February.
I've seen it in action though.

>The A3000UX, with System V Release 4, is Posix-compliant, which opens the
>door to federal procurement nicely.   How does Mach fare?

Mach, with its 4.3BSD compatibility, is Posix-compliant.  As for federal
procurement, there is talk that NASA has bought 5000 of the new NeXTs.
InfoWorld, I think it was, reports the CIA is interested in the NeXTs because
of its DSP chip.  NeXT is going heavily into the government market.

>Jobs claims that the OS isn't important to the purchaser....A standard
>OS doesn't matter [to Jobs].

Despite what Jobs may think, he's built a machine with a standard, yet
forward-looking OS.  It's basically 4.3BSD with a Mach kernel.  4.3BSD is
the standard part. The Mach kernel is the forward-looking component.