Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!hellgate.utah.edu!csn!alumni.colorado.edu!fozzard From: fozzard@alumni.colorado.edu (Richard Fozzard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: System 7.0 vs. NeXT Step Message-ID: <1991Feb8.003934.5763@csn.org> Date: 8 Feb 91 00:39:34 GMT References: <1991Feb5.013654.4045@NCoast.ORG> Sender: news@csn.org (news) Distribution: comp Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 37 Nntp-Posting-Host: alumni.colorado.edu In article melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes : >This is not going to happen. It goes back to what Jobs' says about >the least common denominator in a computer. If there isn't a DSP, >then developers can't assume that the quality of sound in the >machine(for a better and more detailed explanation of the LCD >principle, please read what Jobs has to say about it). Besides, voice >mail would not be a too good w/o the DSP. The LCD for the Mac is a >Plus. Apple is going to have to live with that legacy for several >years, and so are developers. This, IMHO, will limit the >functionality of the software on the Mac. So what happened to Jobs' famous LCD? Even he seems to have gotten the idea all muddled up. Used to be, every NeXT had an erasable optical and no floppy drive. Now neither can be depended on. You can't even be sure there's a hard disk (on a machine costing thousands!). Not that I'm saying this is bad - it's just inevitable when a company responds, as NeXT is doing now, to the needs of different users. The LCD principle just can't be used as a defense for why NeXT shouldn't produce a low-end machine. That wouldn't stop developers from producing good software any more than it has stopped the production of good high-end software on the Mac (eg: FrameMaker, Adobe PhotoShop or Illustrator, etc., none of which is even tolerable on a Plus). In fact, NeXT will probably never make it big (as a "personal computer", though it may yet as a workstation) unless it makes a really low priced model. The principle of Lowest Common Denominator can only really work if the cost, too, is Low! -- ======================================================================== Richard Fozzard "Serendipity empowers" Univ of Colorado/CIRES/NOAA R/E/FS 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 fozzard@boulder.colorado.edu (303)497-6011 or 444-3168