Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!mintaka!geech.ai.mit.edu!rjc From: rjc@geech.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Why all of this NeXT talk? Keywords: A3000UX NeXT stop rediculous Message-ID: <1991Feb13.051539.11902@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Date: 13 Feb 91 05:15:39 GMT References: <1991Feb11.123119.2383@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Feb11.214121.210@en.ecn.purdue.edu> <1991Feb13.011915.21730@sugar.hackercorp.com> Sender: daemon@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Lucifer Maleficius) Distribution: usa Organization: None Lines: 62 In article <1991Feb13.011915.21730@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <1991Feb11.214121.210@en.ecn.purdue.edu> doctorj@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeffrey W Davis) writes: >> Comparing a color system with a monochrome system all the way down >> to price is unrealistic. Comparing the cheapest monochrome, slotless NeXT >> to the most expensive Amiga (color, slotted) and wondering why the >> color, slotted 3000UX costs more is rediculous. > >Who's wondering? I know why the Amiga costs more, and it's not the video. It's >the slots. The Amiga video is significantly lower resolution than the NeXT. >If color isn't your buying point (and it isn't for the low-end workstation >market) then the Amiga is definitely a poorer deal. How about we wait 1 or 2 years when the Amiga gets a faster 040 or 050 than the NeXT, then browse the newly created group comp.sys.next.slabs.forsale. I bet your see a few hundred slabs being sold because their creator was too short sighted to add a CPU slot. Like I said, no way the slab is going to succeed for an extended period of time as a 'Personal Unix Workstation.' Let's imagine our stereotypical student. Student: "My college requires me to own a personal Unix computer. Hmm, the NeXT looks good at only $3200." [next day] Student: "Gosh, I only have 10-20 mb free! , why do I need this ethernet port, I can't get an ethernet connection from my residence, and I have to purchase Mathematica seperate now." [1 year later] Student: "Hmm, my NeXT is ok, but I need more speed and a bigger HD. There are faster processors availible and the prices of the other workstations have fell drastically. I can't expand. Why oh why did I ever waste $3200 on the NeXT! Now I have to sell it and purchase a faster computer." >> What extra features does [the NeXT color system] have to merit the >> price difference? > >Higher resolution display, more colors (both in palette and in range), better >UNIX/display integration, real live applications that run under UNIX instead >of a single-tasking O/S, more RAM on the motherboard, two serial ports, ether, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since when has the Amiga, or any other workstation been single-tasking? This isn't an extra feature, its a requirement! And the 'better UNIX/display integration' makes it harder to port software developed on a NeXt to be ported to STANDARD UNIX and the STANDARD interfaces availible. >bigger monitor...? The NeXT monitor is only 17" or so I'm told. You can easily purchase an A2024, or a NEC5d. Sun workstations have had big monitors for a long time. As for the colors, I thought the NeXT (cheap color system, if you can call it cheap) only had 4,032 colors (slightly short of 4096). On the Amiga, you can CHOOSE what display you want, that means a Video Toaster, the A2410, ColorBurst, VideoMaster 32, etc. With the Slab(color) you're locked in to your system. It you buy a color slab. I assume you can't upgrade that color anymore than you could upgrade the monochrome slab. (haha, yea you could kludge up a video board on the SCSI bus, but that is lame.) The Color slab with a >100mb HD costs more than an A3000UX+Toaster. >-- >Peter da Silva. `-_-' >.