Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: A laptop, a Classic, and a Cray in a Cube (was: give it to the FSF Message-ID: Date: 11 May 91 16:21:30 GMT References: <282AE226.3250@deneva.sdd.trw.com> <130178@gore.com> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 29 In-Reply-To: petrilli@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu's message of 11 May 91 15:39:13 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article petrilli@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Chris Petrilli) writes: So... let's all do something. Everyone write a letter to NeXT (or contact your CC or Rep for the area) and tell them how this would benefit them as well as humanity. I like the idea of free software, and I hope that I can contribute something, but a world based on Stallman's ideas is not going to work. Stallman is on the 50 year software development plan. We're all going to be dead before all the basic software is done at the rate things are going. If NeXT wants NeXTStep to become a standard they need a lower priced machine that more American can afford. The competition is making it more difficult. 486 machines are becoming really cheap. The average guy is going to buy 386 or 486 PC that run Windows because everyone else is doing it. Next year a $3000 NeXT($2000 for us deserving college students -- about a million or two of us?) and a multiprocessing 88K Cube will will help convince those confused DOS owners(Windows or OS/2 2.0?) that OS/2 2.0 wasn't really worth the wait after all. Yeah, forget the fancy commmercials. NeXT can just show people what IBM and MS having been working on for the past 5 years and then show them what NeXT had this year. There's no comparison. -Mike