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From: n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: System 7.0 vs. NeXT Step
Message-ID: <11468@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 23 Jan 91 17:34:18 GMT
References: <t48Gb-f4@cs.psu.edu>
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In article <t48Gb-f4@cs.psu.edu> (Michael D Mellinger) writes:
>...System 7.0 for a couple years, but what will it offer us that NeXTSTep
>2.0 doesn't already have?  

NeXTStep or UNIX(mach)? NeXTStep is the INTERFACE, MACH(unix) is the op sys.
Will 7.0 have links to files and directories (false copies)?  Pipes?
Sockets?  It's supposed to have inter-process communication, but we'll
have to see how Apple does the 'Application Communication' Manager.

>The only big plus that I can tell is that
>it won't be nearly as large as Unix(another plus might be that it
>isn't Unix :-))

It's too bad 7.0 isn't unix.  I'd rather have unix onmy plus than the
native MacOS.

>However, NeXT is shipping machines with 8 megs of
>memory and the 68040 chip, so this kind of makes of for the fact that
>Unix is a CPU and memory sucking hog.

Not really.  The more memory you have the less paging the OS has to do
(if it even supports VM, i.e., NOT macOS by design) and therefore, no
I/O = quicker, sometimes significantly quicker, performance.
  UNIX by itself is NOT such a large system.  When additions are made,
it does enlarge, but that's understandable(just like adding INITs and
cdevs to a Mac).  Some UNIX kernels I have
seen were 450K in size (some are considerably larger, i.e., 1.3M, and
others are considerably smaller, 118K (for MINIX)).  The smallest 
system file I have ever had has been ~300K, and actual memory usage
(RAM) of the MacOS system is typically 250K on my Plus; sometimes 400K.

I think the MacOS, for everything that is _built_in_ to ROMs, is the
'memory sucking hog.'  128K ROM (Mac Plus) + 400K RAM ==> 528K =
This 528K is a large amount of memory to be using compared with the
stock machine. (Actually, 400K/1024K is more appropriate -. ~40%).
On a NeXT machine with 8M RAM, I seriously doubt if the MACH kernel
occupies 3.5Megs.

For an example of a small unix system that is *quite* usable, see the
AT&T 3B1.  Some models of it have 2M RAM, 40M hard drive and have a
complete UNIX system (including development tools).  It even has a
windowing system and virtual memory.  [it runs a M 68010 chip.]

I have owned a Mac Plus for 4 years.  I like Macintosh, but after
using UNIX with X, I prefer UNIX.  It's too bad I can't afford a
NeXT, or other workstation. :-)

Please send flames, et. al. to /dev/null (or the trashcan for non-unix).
             +----------------------+------------------------+
             | Brent Burton         | n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu |
             | Computer Sci/Physics +------------------------+
             | Texas A&M University | brentb@nuchat.UUCP     |