Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely From: jgreely@diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NeXT alternatives Message-ID: <41358@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 1 Apr 89 18:26:38 GMT References: <12192@reed.UUCP> <245300010@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <688@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: J Greely Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science Lines: 123 In article bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >Perhaps that's why Jobs doesn't want to release source: people could >make use of the NeXT NiFTIeS without buying so much NeXT hardware. Color me radical, but I'm more impressed by the hardware. "You should put NeXT's OS on your Suns!" "Why?" "It runs Mach!" "But I have users who want to buy Sun-specific binaries." "It uses Display PostScript and NextStep!" "But I have 3 different brands of workstations, and they all run X11. All my users are used to it." "It's got Mathematica, SQL, Common Lisp, and the complete, indexed works of Shakespeare!" "So my COBOL students should be duly impressed?" "It has Webster's Ninth Dictionary, and the Oxford Book of Quotations!" "Good. Their comments will be more erudite. By the way, how well does all this stuff network?" "It has NFS!" "So does Sun. Does it support Secure NFS?" "Not yet, but it will!" "You didn't answer my question before. Does all of this fancy text-retrieval stuff network, or do I waste X meg for each workstation?" "Of course! You can mount them across NFS!" "...As long as they're read-only, you mean. By the way, can I access all of these nifty window programs from across the network?" "Of course! It supports telnet and rlogin, just like *any* Unix system!" "Not what I asked. Can I run a windowed application on another workstation, and have the windows appear on *my* screen? Like X does?" "Uuhhhh, not yet." "How much memory do I need? Would I have to upgrade all of my suns to 8 meg?" "At least. 12 would be better, especially if you don't have good-sized swap disks attached to each workstation." "So, are you selling RAM or hard disks?" "Both. How did you guess?" >As it is now, NeXT machines are islands unto themselves, >almost the classical personal computer, only incidentally interacting >with the rest of the machines around them. Too true. Sometimes I feel that the reason I've got one on my desk is that no one else wanted it (sometimes I'm right, too). I like the machine, but the Gee-Whiz (excuse me, GeE-WhIZ) features do nothing but suck cycles. I'd run without the window system occasionally, but the puny little console is a fairly dumb terminal, and doesn't fill enough of the screen (translate that: I *like* Sun consoles; they let me use the machine's resources more fully, and I can rest my eyes). Etc, etc. My biggest problems with the software are related to the user interface. There is some very good thought in the system, and the implementation is, in general, very well done. Pity I don't fit their model of a user. Take the Dock (please!): I can have up to twelve applications available at the touch of a button. Just like pop-up menus in X, right? Wrong. Double-click that button, and you launch an application. Do it again and you foreground the previously launched copy. Want more than one Terminal at a time? Put more than one on the Dock. Put three Terminals and a Clock on the Dock, and you don't have room for everything else. Add those damn pop-up, pull right menus obscuring the upper left corner, and you start to see where it breaks down for me (hint for the annoyed: many applications allow you to set the location of the permanent menu. Set its coordinates to something large and negative, and you'll never see it again). >But I digress... Me too (oh, you noticed that, did you?). -=- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)