Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!stanford.edu!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!rucs!rucs2!medlin
From: medlin@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (Roger Medlin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: The Fate of the Macintosh
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.145326.27445@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 91 14:53:26 GMT
Organization: Radford University
Lines: 45

Best I can figure (correct me if I am wrong), my Macintosh SE/30 is rated
at somewhere between 2 and 3 MIPS (not too bad), but when you consider
that the new NeXT (retail priced at around $5,000) checks in at around 15
MIPS, I question the future of Macintosh.

Hey, I for one love the standardization of the software, the graphically
based user-interface, the operating system, etc., etc., but when one
considers that (in theory) a software emulator could be (fairly easily)
derived which would allow the NeXT to run Mac Software, it is questionable
if Apple does not have a serious problem on their hands.

Yes, Apple is finally  becoming somewhat (but not truly) competitive price
wise with the Macintosh, but to be honest, nothing Apple has (IIfx included)
can come close to running with the new NeXT, and certainly not at the price!

If you ask me, all someone would have to do is copy the Macintosh ROMS, make
a Macintosh Software Emulator for the NeXT, and post it as freeware to the
NET, and all of a sudden, I would say Apple Stock might take a rough ride.
Adam Smith's version of capitalism might say someone probably wouldn't do
this without the proper incentive, but the world isn't necessarily made up
solely of those who cling to the virtues of capitalistic incentive.

I haven't done any extensive calculations to prove it one way or the other,
but I figure the NeXT should be able to (software) emulate the Macintosh
and still run faster than even my SE/30.  Hey, the instruction set should
be close between the Motorola 68040 and the 68030, huh ?

Right now, the NeXT disk drive is not set up to read/write Mac OS disks, 
but how long would it realistically take to change that.

I for one am going to watch the computer market with great skepticism--
once again.  Apple could quite possibly go from being the second largest
supplier of personal computers in the world to simply a legend of the
past within a matter of five years.

Apple has for years built some innovative, fairly reliable, and satisfying
to use products, but until recently, they have taken for granted their
market share (allowing those God-awful MS-Dos clones to dominate the PC
market).  Yes, it appears they are making a symbolic gesture with their
present pricing strategies, but I think perhaps they had better try harder
to please (and by all means impress the heck out of) their customers 
rather than their stock-holders--Wall Street's financial capital won't keep
the company afloat for ever (yes, I know their stock trades OTC)...

Comments ?