Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!greg From: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Amiga/NeXT flames (Was Re: Amiga OS *IS* state...) Message-ID: <46907@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 9 Apr 91 08:31:08 GMT Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin Lines: 67 Originator: greg@dewey.cc.utexas.edu [I had to post this because rn kept throwing up when I tried to follow up.] Michael D Mellinger writes: The basic NeXTstation is great for use on a network. If NeXT put a larger drive on the low-end machine, it would cost more and then people who network a dozen machines would have something to complain about. It's not the ideal system for a single user system, but it's such a great deal that it's hard to pass up. It's _not_ a great deal in any way for the single user. That was exactly what I was saying before. Steve Jobs markets it as all a student needs for college, when it's definitely the _wrong_ box if you're not putting it on a network, and I have only heard of one college that was planning on putting ethernet jacks in the dorm rooms... Most users don't know that they can buy a NeXT. It's a Mac and IBM world. I think Apple charges the similar prices for RAM and HD. How about Commodore? I doubt Apple actually charges nearly $3000 for 8MB of RAM, but I wouldn't put it past them either. In the Commodore market the OEM equipment is sometimes slightly more and sometimes slightly less than competitors. For example the A590 hard drive & interface is higher than average in A500 HD prices. However, the Display Enhancer card costs something like $100-$150 less than the competing flickerFixer board and works with the new video modes which aren't supported by the fF. OEM equipment isn't nearly as outrageously priced from C= than from Apple, IBM, or NeXT. Me> With 30,000 machines what kind of user groups can you expect? It's Me> possible that you _might_ know someone else who owns a NeXT, but it's a Me> small chance. I know three people. Think about it. What other machine are computer literate people going to buy? Hmmm... Now considering the national ranking of the UT CS department, I'd be willing to bet that a good number of the people here are computer literate. :) Well, I don't know a single person who is still looking at buying a NeXT, including those who were planning on it a couple months ago. What computer literate person _would_ buy a NeXT? You get a non-standard Unix port on a box that has shipped less than 30,000 units built buy a company that several competent businesspeople have predicted will fail within a year. Sounds like a _great_ investment to me... I can tell you right now that if I was looking for a high speed Unix box I'd be buying a SPARC. If I was looking for a practical Unix box with a standard OS I'd be buying an A3000UX. Under NO circumstances would I buy a NeXT. (Of course, right now I'd be waiting for the next generation RISC boxes anyway.) Me> BTW, how much does Improv cost now? Not sure, somewhere b/w $495 and $695. I see. Lotus is trying to make some money while they still can. -Mike Greg -- Greg Harp |"How I wish, how I wish you were here. We're just two |lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year, greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu|running over the same ground. What have we found? s609@cs.utexas.edu |The same old fears. Wish you were here." - Pink Floyd