Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!apple!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!bucasb!merrill
From: merrill@bucasb.bu.edu (John &)
Newsgroups: alt.next
Subject: Re: Questions on NeXT machine
Keywords: NeXT
Message-ID: <593277618.8213@bucasb.bu.edu>
Date: 19 Oct 88 15:20:18 GMT
References: <17780@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> <[9.5]karl@ddsw1.alt.next>
Reply-To: merrill@bucasb.bu.edu (John &)
Organization: Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems
Lines: 42
In-reply-to: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM ([Karl Denninger])

In article <[9.5]karl@ddsw1.alt.next>, karl@ddsw1 ([Karl Denninger]) writes:
>
>With regards to Next machines only being available to colleges:
>
>If Next really expects we, the developers and software publishers, to come
>out with software for this beast, they had BETTER give us more of a market
>than the University crowd! 

I think that it may come as a surprise to many of you "developers and
software publishers" out there---but we in the educational community
develop much of our own software.  I will regret it if no decent word
processor comes out for a machine I use---and, since I need an
adequate word-processor, I'll write one.  The result won't be as
polished as a packaged program, but it won't carry a bunch of extra
garbage with it, either.  

>Sorry, but I won't develop, sell, or permit the use of our software by
>colleges until and unless they agree to abide by our copyright, and the law
>contains the teeth to force that complience.  

I hope that it won't disturb you that I could not care less.  I doubt
that your products are irreplacable---and, if they are, I'll write
replacements of my own.  Given your self-righteous attitude, I doubt
that the quality of your customer support warrants using your product.

>					        The university market
>represents too little money to gain our full support.

See above.

>If Jobs wants this machine to succeed, he _must_ market to the general
>consumer.  

Jobs made an interesting point during his press conference, one that
you might ponder when you talk about the "general consumer".  Any of the
top 100 universities in this country would be a Fortune 500 company if
it were not in the education business.  The purchasers in those
organizations are educated, independent, and quite capable of software
development.  A machine or corporation can survive quite happily in
that market niche---consider DEC's VAX, for instance.  Why try to
extend yourself outside of a good market?
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