Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!uokmax!d.cs.okstate.edu!minich From: minich@d.cs.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: How to get Improv... Message-ID: <1990Dec19.192902.27484@d.cs.okstate.edu> Date: 19 Dec 90 19:29:02 GMT References: Organization: Oklahoma State University Lines: 34 by declan@remus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ): | * Distribution on ODs has proven to be too costly, and only a | very small portion of new machines will have the Canon drive. | | * Floppies seem to be the software distribution method of choice for | NeXT and third parties (remember the agreement with DiskCopy Labs?). | I'd imagine the primary reason NeXT moved to the 2.88 MB drive was to | provide better and cheaper third-party distribution techniques | (especially with the new cost of ODs). [...] | Basically, the same thing happened with the Macintosh. In moving from | the 400K to the 800K drive media (first introduced with the 512KE, | no?), software houses knew that the Mac owners with only a 400K drive | would not be able to read their software. The reason they could do | this, though, was that the installed base of 400K drive-sporting | Macintoshes was significantly less than the installed base of 800K | drive-equipped ones. Of course, the situation is a bit different, | and - agreed - it would be _very_ nice if Lotus would let you send in | your OD to receive Improv. The Mac change from 400K to 800K wasn't really quite the same. If you had access to a Mac that could read an 800K disk (like at the corner dealer... for NexT that's about 3hrs round trip...) you had a Mac that could copy the files to a 400K disk. With the NeXT scenario, even if you have access to a floppy-capable NeXT, you still have to get the info from there to _your_ machine somehow. Not everybody is on a reasonable net or can copy things via uucp or such things. NeXT just screwed up by not including a floppy of some sort on the original machine. (IMHO, of course.) -- |_ /| | Robert Minich | |\'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| "I'm a newcomer here, but does the |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | net ever lay any argument to rest?" | U | - Ackphtth | -- dan herrick