Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!Tomobiki-Cho!mrc
From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Should I get a NeXT?
Keywords: mac, next
Message-ID: <15875@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 91 21:20:58 GMT
References: <87442@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi
Lines: 53


It's a tough question to answer.

It is not likely that there will ever be much of a third-party
software market for the NeXT.  It's too much of a fringe market, and
likely to remain that way.  The proprietary status of NeXTstep and the
limited platforms on which it is available scares many vendors away.
We're seeing this now.

There are, however, some dedicated vendors in the NeXT market who are
producing good work.  If you like their products, you win; on the
other hand if you don't you can't go to their competition.

I do not believe the NeXT will ever match the PC in the marketplace.
It may, in time, match the Mac; but I consider this optimistic.

Questions remain about the long-term prospects of NeXT the company.
Although the circumstances of NeXT's management makes it freer to
explore new innovations, it also makes it less sensitive to market
considerations.  The pragmatism in abandoning the late unlamented
optical disk is encouraging; however this must be muted by the
excessive PC mentality being exhibited.  Be wary of the attitude that
the vendor knows more about what the customer needs than the customer
does.

If compatibility with your work environment is important, you should
talk with your management about their long-term plans for the NeXT
platform.  The odds are that they are adopting a "wait and see"
attitude.  If the Pencomm (or other) X support fails to work out, we
may see early retirement for the NeXTs here.  That in itself won't
break (or make) NeXT, but that scenario played out at enough other
sites can cause a difference.

A lot also depends how well you can tolerate the worst case.  If NeXT
the company went away, or if release 3.0 turned out to be totally
unacceptable for your use, would you still be able to use what you
have now?  It is still a 68040 engine which is a reasonable hardware
platform.  It runs a reasonably modern clone of Unix which should be a
viable enough software platform long after the hardware has ceased to
be interesting.

Remember: Computer ownership is not for the faint of heart.  The
baseline monochrome loss-leader system, it is only 3 grand at academic
pricing.  It is difficult to go wrong at that low a price.  You'll
have to judge for yourself on the color system.

 _____   | ____ ___|___   /__ Mark ("Gaijin") Crispin "Gaijin! Gaijin!"
 _|_|_  -|- ||   __|__   /  / R90/6 pilot, DoD #0105  "Gaijin ha doko?"
|_|_|_|  |\-++-  |===|  /  /  Atheist & Proud         "Niichan ha gaijin."
 --|--  /| ||||  |___|    /\  (206) 842-2385/543-5762 "Chigau. Omae ha gaijin."
  /|\    | |/\| _______  /  \ FAX: (206) 543-3909     "Iie, boku ha nihonjin."
 / | \   | |__|  /   \  /    \MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU  "Souka. Yappari gaijin!"
Hee, dakedo UNIX nanka wo tsukatte, umaku ikanaku temo shiranai yo.