Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news
From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Subject: Re: MacIIci vs. NeXT station?
In-Reply-To: sjhg9320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu's message of Thu, 13 Jun 1991 03: 00:39 GMT
Message-ID: <7v6H-b6v@cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet)
Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws0.sys.cs.psu.edu
Organization: Penn State Computer Science
References: <1208@chem.ucsd.EDU> <1991Jun13.030039.9957@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1991 02:08:36 GMT
Lines: 42


In article <1991Jun13.030039.9957@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> sjhg9320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (K-29 Brown) writes:

   Before anyone takes this as a flame, let me state that I think 
   The NeXT Station is truly a wonderful thing.
   I had the same dilemma last spring- bought a IIci because of the currently
   available software and the ease of upgrading the hard-drive.
   Most of the stuff available for the NeXT as detailed in their software
   booklet was supposed to be released this spring, but the lion's share of
   it is still 'Real Soon Now'/'Vaporware'.

It's probably best to call the companies to find out what's actually
shipping and what isn't.  Word Perfect and Improv are shipping.  Adobe
and Mathematica(free, but not ready) will ship in July.  Quark XPress
has been put on hold.

   When you price the NeXT, make sure you include the cost of a 300 Meg HD upgrade.There's no way in heck you can run the full kernel, apps like Microphone,
   Improv, and WriteNow and fit it all in 100 or so Megs.

I recommend getting an extra 8MB of RAM too.  The Chip Merchant is
selling 4MB SIMMS for $160.  The 300MB drive will probably cost around
$1100.  I've seen 660MB for $1500, so you might want to consider that.
If you can network your machine to another group of NeXT's then you
can buy a 1.2GB drive for around $2200 and everyone can share the
cost.

BTW, you might be able to make do with the 105MB NeXT.  It really
depends on what you want to do.  You can digitize songs tha take up
5-30MB a pop.  However, Word Perfect, Improv or FrameMaker documents
will take up far less space.

   Another thing to include in your pricing scheme is the cost of the software
   you'll buy. If you like straight Unix stuff, you'll be home free, but if you
   want to buy stuff like the previously mentioned applications, include a 100%
   premimum- just like the Mac vs. DOS, software publishers need to charge more
   to show a profit, due to the restricted market of the machine.

Well, WriteNow is free.  Improv, however, does cost $695(it was free
until March 31.  That's when the NeXT deal was really sweet).  I think
WP might run $395 or $495 through NeXT Connection(1-800-800-NeXT).

-Mike