Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!ukma!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!declan From: declan@remus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: IIgs ROM revisions (was: Support Apple IIs) Message-ID: Date: 1 Apr 91 19:12:13 GMT References: <8259@crash.cts.com> <13917@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <22190@yunexus.YorkU.CA> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 69 In article <22190@yunexus.YorkU.CA>, philip@yunexus.yorku.ca (Phil McDunnough) writes: > You've missed my whole point. It is the cost of maintaining a workstation > both from the hardware maintenance and s/w purchasing point of view. Try > pricing out a maintenance contract on a Sparc or even a NeXT. I haven't missed your point; I just disagree with you. I've owned a NeXT for two years, and the only problem I've had with it was an OD cable going bad. That was replaced - cheerfully, for free - by the local campus service center. The ONLY other expenditure I had was one toner cartridge. Period. Perhaps my experience has been an exception to the rule, but I've visited NeXT's factory, and I'm quite convinced that they have better quality control than anyone else in the industry. Now, I've had an Apple II for seven years, and things have gone wrong with that, too: 5.25" disk controller card blew, Apple RGB died, 3.5" drives started to eat disks, and so on. My Mac's power supply died, and the internal floppy died. Please don't tell me that PCs are all that much cheaper than workstations to maintain. > So? We were talking price of ownership. MIPS isn't the whole story anyway. I didn't say it was, and neither would most sane people. I didn't have SPECmarks handy at the time. > I haven't got the time to be hacking away at unsupported software. That's > one reason Unix has had such a hard time gaining acceptance-lack of good > supported software. That's quickly changing though the prices are very > high. > > Be reasonable. There's more to peripherals than laser printers and > hard drives. Try getting a reasonable NTSC compatible colour cube. > Or even an inexpensive colour printer for the NeXT. Or a digitizer, > a Midi program, a sheet music program, games,etc...Or a CD-ROM. > By PC, I mean the Intel family. I didn't know MIDI software and games fall under the heading of "peripheral devices." As for a color printer - any color PostScript one will work. And the NeXT uses SCSI CD-ROM drives. True, software prices aren't necessarily going to be as cheap as they are in the PC community. But I haven't had to BUY anything for my NeXT yet. The included software and the excellent shareware and freeware that you so casually dismiss serve my purposes famously. And companies like Lighthouse Design are offering their products at something like $25 - student prices. That's just a little less than $500. > The 105 NeXTstation is not usable. In any case, would you please quote > some maintenance figures. These things break you know. Sorry, but I beg to differ. I have a 105 MB NeXTstation in my room right now, networked to my cube. It's working fine. If you're talking about HD space, I can free up to 50 -60 MB on a 105 MB system - that's quite usable. As for RAM, add it yourself later, if you must. > Again you miss the point. Need I repeat myself. Workstations cost more > to own. It wouldn't matter if they were free. Again, you fail to make one. I understand what you're saying and disagree with you. I speak from years of personal experience. How about you? -Declan