Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Computer Architecture question -- Daye Haynie Message-ID: <48644@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 8 May 91 07:48:31 GMT References: <48625@ut-emx.uucp> <#c4G!au$1@cs.psu.edu> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Distribution: comp Organization: The University of Texas at Austin Lines: 33 In article <#c4G!au$1@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > >Of course it will be some work for NeXT. However, for the software >developers it will be easy, so 99.99% of the current software will run >within days on the 88K machines. While your finally hand-coded >assembly code on the Amiga will take quite a bit of effort. A lot of good that will do the users. Have you ever upgraded software on a Unix box? Any commercial apps will be expensive to upgrade _if_ the developers continue to support them. What about Lotus Improv? Do you expect Lotus to give out free copies of their software and then turn around and upgrade it for even a _discounted_ price? I'm not saying that porting would be easy (or even very possible) on an Amiga. I'm just saying that you're fooling yourself if you expect it to be a joyride on the NeXT either. Sure, most apps (more like 90%, not 99%) will be easily recompiled, but you're going to pay through the nose for the upgrades from the software developers. Besides, NeXT has to make some profit and get the fabled (read: vaporware) microkernel Mach before they can worry about a new CPU. I personally don't expect either of the first two to happen in the next year or so. Of course, with several business-oriented sources predicting the demise of NeXT in that amount of time, Steve Jobs might want to stop sweating over the ledger and start sweating over his resume. ;-) Greg -- Greg Harp |"I was there to match my intellect on national TV, | against a plumber and an architect, both with a PhD." greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu| -- "I Lost on Jeopardy," Weird Al Yankovic