Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!caen!uflorida!bikini!bb From: bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: why X? what am I missing? Message-ID: Date: 14 Jan 91 02:49:16 GMT References: <12048.278dfd95@ecs.umass.edu> Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU Organization: /cis/lightning0/bb/.organization Lines: 42 In-reply-to: gerst@ecs.umass.edu's message of 11 Jan 91 18:01:57 GMT In article <12048.278dfd95@ecs.umass.edu> gerst@ecs.umass.edu writes: > What is the REAL reason people are choosing X based systems over the > NeXT? Because the other several hundred multi-vendor computers at their site run X. Because they expect to continue to be able to purchase X-based products from a large number of vendors in the future. > Is there something I'm missing? What is running on X that everyone is > using other than Xterm, Xeyes and Backgammon :) ??? See above. > I would really like to know why NeXT is losing sales to a windowing > environment which is nothing more than a multi-session terminal for the > majority of the users. See above. > Everything I've seen so far is "we have to run X", "we need X", "we > bought Sun's because they run X"... WHY????? Because X is the first window system that has been implemented by a large percentage of workstation vendors. Because it was the first system that let users and managers get a taste of what "distributed computing" really meant and what it could do for you. There is nothing superior about X; in fact it reeks of device dependency and special cases, and just generally stinks. However, until NextStep is offered on more platforms that just two (well, really one and a half, as I hear most of the cool Next clients aren't delivered with the RS/6000), X will continue to hold sway. -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu