Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Buy NeXT (was: NeXT-bashing party... Message-ID: <_adGva+d1@cs.psu.edu> Date: 1 Apr 91 01:30:53 GMT References: <1991Mar29.130758.1@dev8.mdcbbs.com> <2022@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Distribution: na Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 55 In-Reply-To: schweige@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil's message of 31 Mar 91 01:27:12 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <2022@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil> schweige@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) writes: I don't intend to knock the NeXT, I think that they have done some interesting things. I do wonder, though, whether or not they will really survive in the market place. Let's remember that they have apparently shipped less then 10% of the numbers of Amiga's that have shipped, and that from reports given here on the net are very backlogged in making deliveries (and are quite possibly losing sales because of it). The price-performance ratio for the NeXT is quite nice, nice enough so that I wonder if there is any real profit being made. Since NeXT is a privately held company, we don't get to find out how they are doing financially. On the other hand, we do know that Commodore is presently showing a profit, and that the Amiga, while certainly lacking the market penetration of MS-DOS machines, and Macs, does seem to be doing well in certain markets. I remember reading where someone said that NeXT could go an entire year w/o selling a machine and still remain in business. NeXT has had 600 million dollars invested in the company from various sources. So, we can assume it will be a couple of years before they have a major crisis since they are selling machines. In the meantime, the consumer gets a great deal on a computer. As pointed out in the above post, though, it is useful to evaluate a machine for what it is, not for what it isn't. One should buy a machine that fits the users requirements. If the machine must have a 68040 _initially_, then the Amiga does not _yet_ fill the bill (although you may have to wait quite a while to get the NeXT that does come with the 68040). If you want an industry standard version of Unix, then the A3000UX with SVR4 may be much more appropriate then the Mac with A/UX or the NeXT. As far as my requirements went, I was quite happy with the Amiga (although I'd still like an Ada compiler, which I believe will come eventually. I note that the NeXT doesn't have an validated Ada compiler either). Let's hope NeXT never goes SVR4. Mach and BSDism's are the only way to go. I think NeXT is dealing pretty well with their backlog of orders. We got all of our upgrade boards and our NeXTstations at Penn State, and NeXT has started shipping color machines. Motorola is ramping up production of the 68040 so I don't forsee a major problem getting a NeXT if you order one today. As far as requirements go, if good software exists then the machine fits the requirements. In the meantime, Mac and Amiga(PC owners are oblivious to all changes) owners can say to themselves "NeXT won't be in business in five years" so they won't feel so bad spending a lot more money on a less powerful machine. Of course everyone said the same thing about poorly mismanaged Commodore, a company that still doesn't have the support of Lotus, Adobe, Word Perfect(at least they didn't drop the Amiga), or Microsoft(of course NeXT doesn't here either, and I don't expect they will for some time -- selling IBM your user interface isn't going to make friend with DOS Weenie leader Bill Gates). At least Amiga owners can say, "we still have the best games in the business." -Mike