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From: STORKEL@RICE.BITNET (Scott Storkel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc,comp.os.misc,comp.misc,comp.arch
Subject: NeXT software distribution...
Message-ID: <619STORKEL@RICE>
Date: 16 Oct 88 18:01:30 GMT
References: <360@elan.UUCP> <2070@cloud9.UUCP> <528@fabscal.UUCP> <1152@mmm.UUCP> <6507@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Rice University - ICSA
Lines: 17

What's the big controversy over software distribution? Reports that I have seen
from the announcement inidcate that Jobs was begging, excuse me, suggesting
that software packages be priced under $500. If software is going to cost $300-
$500 then what's 50 bucks for the media? Besides, if you buy in quantity, you
could probably get the price down to $20-$30 or lower. This is comparable to
distributing Unix programs on 1/4 inch tape. As for software updates, shareware
GNU and stuff, you could either have disks with big libraries of stuff (X, GNU
Emacs, etc.) or you could get stuff through anonymous ftp. I assume that most
major universities (and that is the targeted market, no?) are fairly well
connected.  Anyway, I can't wait until we get some NeXT machines here. I'm
just dying to hack away at Objective-C, Common Lisp, and the NeXTStep
interface. Somebody put a NeXT on my desk and I'll write software that will
change the world!

Scott Storkel
Macintosh Software Development
Rice University