Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news
From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life.
In-Reply-To: fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu's message of 5 Apr 91 15:11:19 GMT
Message-ID: <3&8Ghkzh1@cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet)
Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu
Organization: Penn State Computer Science
References: <49886@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 17:55:56 GMT
Lines: 43


In article <49886@nigel.ee.udel.edu> fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu writes:

   I saw the NeXTStation and was very impressed; however, the price for the
   low-end model ($3500) is nowhere as attractive when you realize that it
   comes with a comparatively miniscule 105 MB hard drive, which gives you
   about 30 megs free. Of course, you could delete stuff...

How much disk space do you have free when you buy a 40MB hard drive
after the system software is loaded onto it?

	   The reasonable NeXTStation with the enhanced OS and a 400 MB hard
   drive is (I think) $5500. $2000 is a LOT to pay for a bigger hard drive.
   They both come with a full 8 megs RAM, and the $1700 laser printer is a
   honey at 400 dpi, and it prints as fast as a Xerox machine. But as my local
   system administrator says, "I'll be interested in the NeXT when there are at
   least three different programs for each application--not before."

Stupid reasoning.  Very stupid!  It's not the quantity it's the
quality of software.  Tell him that he can get 3 of everything the
Apple IIe.  The NeXT has Improv, which is 123 file compatible, and
Word Perfect 5.0, which is...guess.  Adobe Illustrator will be released
in May, and Quark XPress sometime this year(they need a phone call--
tired of saying sometime this year).  The question is will the NeXT,
in its present incarnation, meet your needs(and it doesn't meet
everyones, I concede), not does it have three of everything.

	   He has a good point. Here at Connecticut College, a rather pricey
   school, Mac Classics are selling very well. LCs aren't moving at all, and I
   strongly doubt that there are very many students who are willing to cough up
   the bucks to buy a machine like the NeXT, as nice as it is, unless the
   student is just made of money and needs to have the hottest machine in
   his/her dorm.

True, NeXT isn't going to sell 1,000,000 machines a year with their
current pricing structure, but they know this.  Their one factory can
only produce 100,000 machines a year.  I'm just arguing that if you
are going to spend $3300 ($5000 retail) on a computer, then the NeXT
is (arguably) the best buy one can get for their money.


-Mike