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From: wrb@ulnar (Bill Barker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT on Campus -- How's NeXT really doing at your school?
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.172559.8880@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 17:25:59 GMT
References: <15488@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu (News)
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 37

In article <lh5H?zbu@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)  
writes:
>
>How well does NeXT seem to be gaining acceptance on college campuses?
>What is the general attitude of the computing community?  And are
>people trading in their "Macintoys"(to quote Eric Scott) and PC's for
>the NeXT? 

I have 9 NeXTs under my tutelage here in Biological Structure, with 4 more in  
other departments that use me as an ad-hoc consultant for NeXTish things.  So  
far, we've done a significant amount of software development, database  
(Sybase), spreadsheet (Improv) and technical publishing (FrameMaker and  
WordPerfect) projects with them.  I recently upgraded my departmental  
administrator and budget coordinator with slabs, and they still haven't put  
their eyes back into their heads!  Quite nice to see people having FUN in front  
of a computer.  

For the most part, the NeXTs were intended for software development, but when  
we got these things in the door and saw what one could do with them, other uses  
started taking off.  I pushed hard for NeXTs as replacements for AT-class PCs  
in our administrative offices (the alternative was 386's with Windows).  So  
far, they have been everything I wanted and more, especially when I consider  
how easy my non-technical users switched over and got up to speed.  If things  
keep going like they have been, more should be on the way this year.  Maybe  
sooner than later.

As soon as our NeXTdimension system shows up, I hope to integrate it into our  
video work, as anotomical animations are one of our major products.  

My only problem had been delays in '040 upgrades, but that's it so far.  I've  
had far worse problems with other vendors.

Just one happy customer's opinion.

Bill Barker
Biological Structure
U of Washington, Seattle