Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uwm.edu!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life. Message-ID: <563Gxw#d1@cs.psu.edu> Date: 1 Apr 91 04:52:15 GMT References: Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 53 In-Reply-To: tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu's message of 1 Apr 91 03:31:35 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Todd L. Masco) writes: This flamage is getting extremely tiresome. This is comp.sys.amiga.advocacy is it not? What do you guys do here? Didn't the Atari ST folks request this group so that you would leave them alone? :-) Both have strengths and weaknesses that are of varying importance to each potential user -- and the two are really the cutting-edge low-end workstation models in existence right now. I find the amiga to provide more usefulness per dollar than a NeXTStation would -- I like some of the buzzers and whistles, I really like the OS (I don't care about multi-/single- user), and I don't want to deal with a machine that has to always be on, generating noise and sucking power; One of my house mates (the one who has the NeXT) find the NeXT to be more useful to him: he wants a powerful multi-user MACH (BSDish) environment, and doesn't care about the noise (he shouldn't; there's a Sun2 next to it). The usefulness of the NeXTstation is increasing fast. It's just a matter of getting the software developed for the machine, and NeXT does have some heavy hitters on their team. Lest we forget, the machine is also fun. Interface Builder is great, the display looks sharp, and the Cube has power! It's a programmers playground. Arguing about which computer is "better" is simply stupid. People have different needs, and there's no reason that the Amiga and the NeXT can't (gasp) coexist -- and I say this as a person with on-demand access to each [With maple on the Amiga (CMU has a site license), and Mathematica on the NeXT]. I hope Commodore does well with the Amiga. They have a potentially much larger audience because they have a low-cost machine in the A500. They could easily sell 10,000,000 machines, if they would only get their act together. But I'm placing my bets with NeXT for many different reasons. One of which is the fact that they are going to playing the marketing game, and they have one of the best machines money can buy. A killer combo. I almost bought an A500 over Christmas, but Montegomery(sp) Wards didn't have the 512K memory expansion or a modem and I need to buy it all on credit(shameful). The guy in the store couldn't tell me a thing about the machine. The Amiga just sat their with a dozen other IBM compatibles(which the guy could tell me a little about -- the pervasive feeling in the world is you can't go wrong with MS DOS). Arguing which computer is better isn't stupid, if done in the appropriate places. Something can be learned if people are open minded. -Mike