Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: The Fate of the Macintosh Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 22:51:53 GMT References: <1991Mar22.154811.8691@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 64 In-Reply-To: rdeal@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu's message of 22 Mar 91 15:48:11 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <1991Mar22.154811.8691@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu> rdeal@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (Butch Deal) writes: Well you are wrong closer to 5 MIPS. But lets consider the LC, about 3 or 4 MIPS and around $1000 (educational price). Don't forget about the floating-point coprocessor that ISN'T in the LC or SI? Ooooopps. forgot about that!! Granted I like the NeXT but only as a unix machine. I would wait for the faster 68040 chips. The NeXT is using the first rlease of the 68040 running at its slowest speed 25MHZ; it can go up to 80MHZ giving over 50 MIPS. The NeXT is not the kind of machine that most people whant. It has very limited software and is only supported by a few software developers. How much software do you need? A good word processor and spreadsheet. Some DTP software? Granted the NeXT doesn't have everything, but it is slowly getting the software that it needs to fill the bill for more and more people. Would you rather run FrameMaker, Adobe Illustrator, or Quark XPress on a Mac or a NeXT? Oh yeah, don't you think that your "it's only a 25MHz 68040 arguement rates a stupid?" It's 15 freaking mips. Twice as fast as the IIfx? Floating point is even faster. There will always be faster chips. HP is releasing a 57 mip machine within the next couple months for under $15,000. >I for one am going to watch the computer market with great skepticism-- >once again. Apple could quite possibly go from being the second largest >supplier of personal computers in the world to simply a legend of the >past within a matter of five years. and NeXT could go bankrupt leaving no support to users. Scare tactics. Freaking stop! I've heard it before. PC owners telling Mac users. Mac users telling NeXT users. That's what people were saying a couple of years ago about the Mac. If you want security, buy a PC compatable. You will own the machine everyone else is using, but you will have made the worst possible decision. I love UNIX but if you don't like DOS you would !@$#^%* if you had to use UNIX and NeXT is a UNIX machine. Granted that the NeXT has a mac like interface on the UNIX but to do anything more than basic stuff you would have to get your feet mudy in UNIX. For example? It is more than a symbolic gesture, an LC is far cheaper than a big blue windows speed not deamon. When the new mac 68040's are released then the 68020 machines will go down even more as well as the 68030's When Apple's 040 machine with Ethernet is released, a lot of Mac owners are going to come to their senses and realize how much of a deal the NeXT is. NeXT machines are fast and look good but just wait till you try and find some software to run on that speed deamon. Giv the NeXT another year atleast before you put any money into it but don't expect to run your mac software on it. What kind of software do you want? Why aren't we all using Apple II's? There are over 10,000 pieces of software for it. -Mike