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From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Will NeXT survive? Grow with the times?
Message-ID: <_w6G&8n_1@cs.psu.edu>
Date: 1 May 91 20:53:36 GMT
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(Michael Goldman ) writes:

   I think the question is concerning market viability.  No one knows the future
   but I heard from a friend at a software company that supports NeXT that
   the company got paid in NeXT boxes, not cash. He hears that NeXT will probably
   not make it, but then they said that about the Macintosh for its first 2 years
   so who knows?  I think it depends on what you want your computer for.  If its
   something that doesn't require constant upgrades, then your computer will
   last a lonnngg time.  I've been content to let my company buy the latest,
   while I continue doing my home stuff on an 8088.

Are people at NeXT telling him this :-)?  Wall Street types?

   As for CPU upgrades, I see the SPEC marks and other benchmarks showing
   CISC keeping up with RISC within reasonable limits.  I don't see any reason
   why CISC can't keep performance up with a lag time of a year or 2, which is
   negiligible in terms of making a box, getting it to market, and getting
   the price down to reasonable levels.

NeXT is rumored to be working on an 88K machine.  Motorola has made
some pretty big claims about the performance of future versions of the
chip.  So, I think part of NeXT's future depends on how good the 88K
turns out to be.  For now, though, NeXT computers are competitive with
the SPARCstations in their price range.  Although, it looks like HP
has redefined price/performance.

   I've seen used SUNs on the market for the price of a new Mac or NeXT.  Why
   not get a Sun.

Because the NeXT's are faster, have a better user interface, and all
in all are nicer machines.

-Mike