Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!*!postman+
From: rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re:NeXT's BIG 3.5" mistake.
Message-ID: <0XMtqn087E-0A14EYk@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 88 21:16:35 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 71

" He [Jobs]  suggested that certified
"developers might include their software (together with on-line documentation)
"on an optical disk to be shipped by NeXT with each machine.  Clearly,
"a great many applications would fit on a single magneto-optical floppy.
"The applications would do everything except save data.  Students could
"play with the programs as much as they like.  After deciding to purchase
"a particular piece of software, the student would call an 800 number
"and give his Visa/Mastercard number to an operator.  The operator would
"ask the student to type a magic cookie to the program, which would then
"generate a number based on the machine's unique Ethernet ID.  Finally,
"the operator would tell the student to type a special number, which would
"turn the application into a full-fledged, full-function, authorized copy.
"The scheme has several advantages: (1) developers wouldn't have to shrink-
"wrap, ship, and market their products through middlemen; (2) developers
"would actually get paid for every active copy; and (3) the $50 cost of
"the magneto-optical material becomes irrelevant.
"
"R. Martin Chavez
"Stanford University School of Medicine
The scheme also has several BIG DISADVANTAGES:
Lets suppose that I'm a developer who started programming (or wanted to port
their software to ) for the NeXT Machine after a year or two.  Well then All the
people (the entire potential market would not have a copy of my software)  In
order to combat this problem NeXT would have to release a new disk (with ALL of
the previous applications) to everyone ( or ideally to NeXT dealers, although
why bother going to the trouble of releasing a "demo" version if everyone has to
go to a dealer to pick up all the new stuff anyway?  Why not just have the
dealer demo things and then SELL them, so that the dealers can make money for
their effort!).  Now ask yourself this: Just How often will NeXT be able to
release another disk?  Once a month? Once every Two or Three Monthes?  Also If
the user only has a few disks (I don't know anyone really needs more then
500MEGS of storage for personal usage) then they are opening themselves up to
viruses by going to the dealers (as was previously mentioned), and also the
copying would have to go file by file (since you can't copy over my old data
and programs), and with the optical drive that would be a slow process indeed...
Also consider the problem of new versions (or do you expect the developers to be
perfect the first time?), you have to wait for another disk release from NeXT
and then you have to go through another validation proceedure etc.   Also, this
removes the possibility of mail order software, which is my prefered methiod of
buying software (since the prices are a lot better and I generally know what
programs I want to get so I don't need the help of a dealer...).  Also the issue
of pirating comes up, I know of a few IBM (yuck) programs that had a similar
system, and they ended up being pirated quite a bit, since any hacker (given
time) could take out the checks (no mater if they were or were not machine
dependent) or just find the algorithm to generate the proper "Magic" word...
All in all a floppy drive is one of the most useful things for a computer
because of the following:

A> Floppies a a cheap means of distribution.

B> Floppy drives are cheap ($100-$200) so one can easily have 2 and thus copying
is also easy (How many people could afford 2 optical drives?)

C> Floppies are a convienient means of moving data from DIFFERENT computer
systems (Although
formats are different most drives are capable of reading data with the proper
software, now how many people do you know with optical drives for their
computers? Not a whole lot I'de immagine)

These  reasons are more then enough to justify (necessitate?) floppy drives for
personal computers,
(BTW IBM RT's  have floppy drives, so there is some precidence for work stations
having them too.)
In any case if NeXT ever wants to move into the home market then they'll NEED
floppies.

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