Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Low End NeXTs (was Re: Desktop publishing)
Message-ID: <1462@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 4 Apr 91 23:24:43 GMT
References: <1991Apr1.200929.17719@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <SCOTT.91Apr2112457@texnext.gac.edu> <1991Apr3.192844.27708@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 26

In article <1991Apr3.192844.27708@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
	songer@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer) writes:
>                                                         Absence of network
>hardware would lower production costs and the absence of the software
>would lower required harddrive space -- raising usability.

I can purchase good quality name-brand Ethernet cards for PCs
for less than $200.  I assume this means the "true cost" of
these is really less than $80.  But consider that a lot of
that is paying for the card itself, interfacing to the ISA bus,
etc.--things that aren't needed when the network hardware is
part of the motherboard.  What are we really talking about here?
$30?  Less?  The savings, if any, is probably negligible.

The software requirement is also quite small--it just doesn't
account for any significant amount of disk space.

>anything had to go, I'd like to see the networking stuff go first. After
>all, for a home machine slip or UUCP is about the height of connectivity.

SLIP requires *no less* software than an Ethernetted machine.
(In fact, it requires quite a bit more.)

You're barking up the wrong tree.

					-=EPS=-