Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!questor!aberno From: aberno@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Anthony Berno) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: X11 for the NeXTstation Message-ID: Date: 9 Jan 91 16:02:34 GMT References: <278A1EA5.28595@orion.oac.uci.edu> Organization: Questor: FREE Usenet News/Internet Mail => +1 604 681.0670 Lines: 55 mwu@teri.bio.uci.edu (Matt Wu) writes: > In article <1875@autodesk.COM> glang@Autodesk.COM (Gary Lang) > writes: > >But NeXT is not a workstation manufacturer. One look at > >NeXTStep will tell you that. No, NeXT is a personal computer > >manufacturer. This means that standards like XWindows from > >the worlstation world are as inapplicable as standards for > >mainframe data access are. > > I have to disagree. Even though NeXTStep is a nice user > interface, the fact that people need to ask the net how to > install modems indicates to me that it is _not_ a personal > computer. And then there are responses like laughing at a > first-time user's problems from experienced NeXT users. > > People who don't know anything about Unix are going to flail > when they try to do many things that should not be difficult > with personal computers. Like try hooking up an old SCSI-1 > drive, installing memory or recovering from a crash. Your > average Macintosh first-time user would probably freak out. > Heck, even more experienced computer users might have some > problems. > > If NeXT wants to sell computers, it can't try to walk the > line between personal computers and workstations; it should > either make the computers easier to use or provide power > users with the tools they want. Actually, doing both wouldn't > be that bad an idea, either. > > Matt Wu > mwu@teri.bio.uci.edu > my opinions represent just my opinions Two comments here: Yes, I would say the NeXT is a bona fide workstation. Consider this: Take a NextStation, remove the DSP, strip all of the nice things out of NextStep, take away Display PostScript, and what do you have? Answer: A SparcStation 1! >>> :-) Note smiley, no flames here. Admittedly, the NeXT's nice stuff, like DPS, does take overhead and thus slows down the apparent speed of the machine, that's why some hard-core workstationers would snub it. But regarding the bit about new users struggling with it, and thus disqualifying the NeXT from being a personal computer- I have never had so much pain as I did with an old Apple II clone I had many moons ago. Simple architecture, yes. Simple to attach a modem to? Well, I sure had a time of it.... My point is that the truly easy- to-use PC hasn't been around all that long, and there are still cases where users can't figure out how to do simple things. A friend of mine, a Mac user, was living with another friend of mine who used IBM's, and didn't know much about computing. The IBM fellow couldn't figure out how to format a floppy, so he asked the Mac user. The Mac user took it upstairs and formatted it in DOS on his Mac. :-)