Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: AMIGA Message-ID: Date: 4 May 91 17:15:50 GMT References: <4402@mindlink.UUCP> <1991Jan11.225935.26086@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 64 In-Reply-To: rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu's message of 11 Jan 91 22:59:35 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <1991Jan11.225935.26086@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes: Sure. They been shipping for several weeks but haven't arrived. GO ahead and order one, and see how long it takes, everytime I try to price one from a place that supposedly sells them, they tell me they don't have any. They have been shipping since December. NeXT's with 040s CAN"T ship in large quantities because the 040 isn't shipping in huge quantities. What are they gonna do, sell a NeXT with a coupon saying 'Send this in, and in 4 weeks we will mail your CPU for installation.'? NeXTs goal for this year is around 40,000 machines. Their plant is designed to handle around 100,000 machines a year(from what I hear). Think Moto. can meet those needs. Sure they can. We have about a dozen machines at PSU, and we have upgraded them *all* to the 68040. There is even a new NeXTstation sitting behind me. Most of the people in the NeXT group are either developers, or got most of the original batch of NeXTs that Jobs had setting in a warehouse. Bzzzzzt. Wrong. Graduate student in computer science here. That means I should know better than to argue with you guys, but someone has got to try and save the world :-). I imagine quite a few students read the group too. Anyway, at least you know the signal to noise ratio is much higher there, and there is plenty of great help available. Even if they were shipping, I wouldn't buy one, unless a few things happen first: 1) Jobs replaces that lame 56001 DSP with a 96001/2, and shares the DSP better. Yeah, the 56001 is only a 10mip DSP, give me something better! CD quality sound isn't enough. 2) Gets CHEAP color (say under $1000) hahahhahahah. The monitor costs twice that amount. Try pricing color monitors from Sony, etc. and see how much they cost. Maybe Jobs should let us connect the NeXT to a TV? 3) AT&T Unix Screw SYSVR4. Why is it better than BSD and Mach, anyway? 4) Licenses the Amiga custom chips and installs them in the NeXT so I can have some awesome games. Actually, from talking to some people at NeXT, I'm under the impression that the NeXT can do decent animation. It's just a matter of people writing the games. I guess when you spend this much money on a computer, you have to get some work done first. Anyway, spend $500 and get the A500 to play games, and a NeXTstation for when you want to get some work done. At $500, I might even buy one. -Mike