Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!romulus.rutgers.edu!declan From: declan@romulus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: IIgs ROM revisions (was: Support Apple IIs) Message-ID: Date: 2 Apr 91 06:18:10 GMT References: <8259@crash.cts.com> <13917@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <22202@yunexus.YorkU.CA> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 88 In article <22202@yunexus.YorkU.CA>, philip@yunexus.yorku.ca (Phil McDunnough) writes: > I feel more comfortable talking about Sun's and Iris's and RS6000's > and HP-UX workstations. Look at the software costs( and the maintenance). I don't know enough about them to discuss the systems and companies in depth. Feel free to go ahead and make your own observations, however. > Since you bring up the NeXT however, please let me know how to get > a colour system for a cube for $2000. Not everyone is a graphic artist. > Moreover, where are the graphics' libraries for it? Cost? However, I'm > digressing. You want a color cube for $2,000? So do I. But try to piece together a comparable system - 24 bit color, 8 bit alpha, video in/out, compression (eventually) on a Macintosh for under $20,000. Look at the January MacWorld - a "nice" NeXTdimension system cost ~$16,000. A comparable Macintosh IIfx system costs ~$28,000 - and that's with all the slots filled. $-) I don't know how much a comparable PC system would be, but I'd imagine it would be fairly pricey. I never said that color workstations are cheap. You do have a point - the lack of a low-cost color system is something that NeXT should eventually address, and perhaps they will. I'd rather see a low cost B&W NeXT, though; it would be a lot cheaper. > Well, I'm glad they serve your purpose. The NeXT is the exception. So > stop using it as an example. Why is it an exception? Most manufacturers are trying to move in the same direction as NeXT. You know, the ones who found the religion of X/Motif... > However, try getting a tektronics 4014 terminal emulator for it. How about getting a tek 4014 emulator for a Mac? PC? Amiga? IIgs? > Oh please. First of all they are really the exception. Moreover that is > a student price. I have the catalogue, and supplements, in front of me. > Let's see. Well, here's a nice Fortran compiler. Educational price $800. Yup, and faculty price for Diagram! is $75. There's a 'f2c' converter for free, which can convert generic Fortran code to C. It does it quite well, actually. > That's right, you had to network it to the cube( does it have a larger > hard drive, perhaps?) in order to get it to work properly. Again, why > won't you state some maintenance costs. Your NeXT products may not break, > but that is neither here nor there. If the things were indestructible > NeXT would offer a longer warranty. Even HP gives you 3 years. To work 'properly'? Huh? The 'station doesn't work improperly by itself, if that's what you mean. But you're right - I have a 660 MB HD and OD in my cube, and there's no reason to put a bigger HD in the 'station, since it's fine for me the way it is now. Tomorrow, for instance, I'm taking the 'station (by itself!) and showing it to my English professor. I have NeXTstep, Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, Oxford Quotations, 10 MB of Shakespeare, 5 MB of the KJ Bible, Milton's Paradise Lost, the included NeXT apps, and a half dozen of my own apps including Improv, Create (demo), WordPerfect (loaner), and so on. That's on a 105 MB disk with room to spare. If I was to delete all but NeXTstep and NeXT's apps (that is, getting rid of Webster's), I'd have about 53 MB free. As for reliability, NeXTs aren't indestructible. Though I don't know how many NeXTs break, I can say in over two years that I was involved with NeXT in one way or another, I've never heard of a motherboard die. One of my friends who used to have a IIc went through four. Again, I can only state maintenance costs that I've experienced - $0. I don't see why you're so hung up on this maintenance issue. The hardware used in the NeXT is very, very similar to that used in Macintoshes. SCSI, Ethernet, SIMMs, same serial ports, same processor family, and so on. > Maintenance costs matter to me. They may not to you. On the contrary, maintenance costs matter a lot to me - I'm just a poor starving college student. But, as I said in my last post, I haven't had ANY costs in two years with my NeXT, while I've had hundreds of dollars worth of expenses with my IIgs and Macintosh. -Declan