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From: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: NeXT not revolutionary enough?
Message-ID: <4429@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 3 Nov 88 02:22:51 GMT
References: <471@wucs1.wustl.edu> <4391@ubc-cs.UUCP> <485@wucs1.wustl.edu> <4069@encore.UUCP>
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Reply-To: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
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In article <4069@encore.UUCP> bzs@encore.com (Barry Shein) writes:
>There are a lot of other examples, like I said, don't make the best
>the enemy of the good and say "Ah, computers are useless, no one has
>even solved the halting problem yet!" which is what a lot of this
>moaning and groaning sounds like.

I have a great deal of respect for Barry, but I think he's under a 
misapprehension about my original remarks. Basically, what I intended
to say is that the NeXT machine doesn't seem tremendously technologically
revolutionary (though definitely nice). It will, however, reach an 
audience which has never had access to this sort of heavy-duty computing
capability before. What they'll do with it I don't know, but it will
certainly bear watching.

The PC is an excellent example of this sort of thing. When the PC was
released in 1981, the dominant machine was the Apple ][. This machine,
however, had the cachet of being a toy (you could play games on it). 
The PC was marketed as a serious business computer, though it was in
fact a glorified Apple ][ (it even had a cassette port). Suddenly,
a lot of people had PC's on their desks, and they started using them
for all kinds of applications.

Technologically, the PC is boring. However, its wide availability led
to all kinds of applications being developed, and to a tremendous lowering
of prices. The PC led to increased credibility of microcomputers, and 
therefore set the stage for the Mac (itself a revolutionary machine).

I don't know whether the NeXT machine will be revolutionary in this sense.
A lot will depend upon the fortunes of the company, and how their customers
use the machine. I do however wish them well.


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