Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!noose.ecn.purdue.edu!orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu!songer
From: songer@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Low End NeXTs (was Re: Desktop publishing)
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.151726.29819@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 5 Apr 91 15:17:26 GMT
References: <SCOTT.91Apr2112457@texnext.gac.edu> <1991Apr3.192844.27708@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <1462@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Sender: root@noose.ecn.purdue.edu (ECN System Management)
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 44



>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.
>

Actually, the point is, cheap or not it is useless to a home user. And
I'm not so sure that if you looked at NextMail and sendmail and all
the config stuff if you would not see a pretty large percentage of
a 100Meg drive. Sure Slip is just as big, but let's face it, there
are people out there who would like a Next and don't feel the need to
be on a network. Maybe I just have a weird set of friends, but I know
of several people who are quite interested in Next as a home machine
and see all the network stuff simply as cost add (distinct from
value add) where cost is measure both in dollars and megabytes.
I hate to reccommed PC's and macs to them, but considering the cost
of a usable standalone Next system, that is precisely what I am
going to do.

My point was, if you want networking at home, all you want is
Slip and a serial port. You do not want an ethernet port. Moreover,
there are lots of people who want (at most) to dial compuserve
but still want a Next.

Also, just to mention it, I've seen a plotitical war over $8 per
unit production cost in a $3000 printer before, I would not describe
a cost even as low as $30 per unit negligible. (After all, $30 times
100,000 machines.....)

-Chris