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From: suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Steve Uitti)
Newsgroups: alt.next,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: NeXT press release (very long but interesting)
Message-ID: <9607@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 18 Oct 88 20:04:17 GMT
Reply-To: suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 60

In article <3580@cs.utexas.eds: < dvorak@cs.utexas.edu (Dan Dvorak) writes:
>The Wall Street Journal article on Steve Jobs' announcement...
>...comparably equipped.  All the machines shown below have 8 MB
>main memory and a large disk:
>                       price   proc.   disk   monitor  operating sys.
>                      -------  -----  ------  -------  --------------
>NeXT Computer System   $6,500  68030  256 MB  17-inch  MACH  
>Apple Macintosh IIx   $13,862  68030  192 MB  19-inch  Apple *
>*  Apple's A/UX UNIX is an additional $2,600.
	My Mac II (not a IIx) was about $5K.  Upgrading (original
purchase) to 8 MB RAM, a larger disk & MMU wouldn't cost any where near
$8K.  My 40 MB disk is fine for Mac OS use.  AOS doesn't look worth
owning, so that is moot.  Fortunately I didn't by the Mac for UN*X.  8
MB of RAM would be nice, but 2 MB works for most things.  I still call
what I have a workstation, due to the way it behaves.
	I got my Mac II last fall, at University prices.  Prices have
increased for the Mac recently.  I think the NeXT prices quoted are
University prices, and other prices were list.  This is bad.  WSJ
generally does better than this (or was it an ad?).
	The NeXT machine looks like a nice UN*X box, and competitive,
but the given price list *is* misleading.

>The price difference is even more surprising given the large
>amount of software bundled with NeXT -- things like Common Lisp,
>Objective C, an SQL database server, a symbolic math program,
>Display Postscript, and a dictionary and thesaurus.
	Some of these would be nice to have, certainly, depending on
who you are, and what you want.  One should look at the system from a
what you can do with it approach.  As delivered:
Capability		NeXT		Mac (without AOS)
WYSIWYG word processing	yes		+$100
Laser printing		+$?		+$2K (General Computer PLP)
C environ		yes		+$100 (LSC)
Database		maybe		hypercard...
Paint capabilities	?		+$100
Document digitizing	no		+$250 (Thunderscan)
Sound digitizing	yes (8KHz)	+$250 (22KHz)
Digitized sound out	yes		yes (but real music cost$)
Screen Color		no (not yet)	yes
Networking		yes		+$? lots of options.
MIDI (music networking)	no		+$250 (lots of options).
	The Mac platform is pretty nice.  The features may be
implemented differently, but the quality is similar and generally
cheap.  Is there anything major that you can't do with a Mac (and a
few bucks)?  Generally for $100, you can get some new capability (more
for new hardware).  I prefer to add to my machine incrementally.
	UN*X isn't new, but it is new to the high volume low cost
workstation market, compared to the Mac.  It is mainly weak in low
cost applications.  People seem to be unwilling to give up on the high
cost for multiuser software attitude, that UN*X inherits by being
multiuser.  The NeXT hardware platform is new, and it remains to be
seen if hardware upgrades will be available (and cheaply).
	Add your own to this list, but be careful about saying for
example "display postscript", since in itself this doesn't do anything
for you that quickdraw doesn't do for a Mac.  It just doesn't do it
the same.  Quickdraw will do high res graphics, etc.

	I used to be a UN*X fanatic, now, its just a living.  Religion
is expensive.  Your mileage may vary.
	Stephen.