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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: <15887@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 91 00:09:08 GMT
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In article <10509@cica.cica.indiana.edu> greg@cica.cica.indiana.edu (Gregory TRAVIS) writes:
>If by "proprietary" you
>mean "Not the world's biggest keenest standard, like UNIX and X.  No one
>will write software unless it's for UNIX and X."

I don't think either UNIX or X are "keen".  But they are there, and
are undeniably the path on which academic computing is heading.

By "proprietary", I mean in the usual industry use of the word,
"proprietary to a particular hardware vendor."

>Then try to substitute in: AmigaDOS

How many universities or corporations have standardized on AmigaDOS?

>Macintosh

An OK example, but Macintosh would have eliminated MS-DOS if Apple
hadn't been so insistant on preventing a clone market from developing
and in charging such exhorbitant prices.

>SunTools

Dying in favor of X11.

>MS-DOS
>Windows 3
>PostScript

Available on zillions of different hardware platforms.

>MVS

Got its market share years ago, before the issue came up.

>VMS

Your one good example.  But one on which the writing is on the wall.

>TENEX

Uh uh.  TOPS-20 yes; but Tenex was paid for by the US Government.  The
TOPS-20 debacle was a major lesson as to why proprietary operating
systems were a lose.

>If you're implying that NeXT may fold don't hold your breath.

I think it is still 50-50.  The next couple of years will be critical.

>you place far too much importance on the compatibility issue.

Which compatibility issue?

A box in a distributed systems environment should be compatible with
the other boxes in that environment.  You can judge for yourself what
the compatibility issues are in an environment that is mostly UNIX/X.

If you mean the home/work compatibility issue, every person has to
judge for themselves.  I develop software for a living.  A box which
is not compatible with my office environment isn't worth spending my
money on.  Other individuals may not have the same requirements; which
is why I offered that as something to consider rather than an explicit
requirement.

 _____   | ____ ___|___   /__ Mark ("Gaijin") Crispin "Gaijin! Gaijin!"
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Hee, dakedo UNIX nanka wo tsukatte, umaku ikanaku temo shiranai yo.