Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!uxc!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!zdenko
From: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Zdenko Tomasic)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Selling through Businessland
Summary: who's afraid of competition?
Keywords: NeXT, RISC, MACH, multiprocessing, bundled software
Message-ID: <1877@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 89 08:10:47 GMT
Expires: 6 Apr 89 08:10:46 GMT
References: <1554@neoucom.UUCP> <121@dg.dg.com> <1749@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> <123@dg.dg.com> <42030@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
Reply-To: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Zdenko Tomasic)
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Lines: 156

In article <42030@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> J Greely <jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:
>
>(I should start out by saying that any comparison between NeXTs and
>high-performance workstations is based on the erroneous assumption
>that the NeXT is intended to compete with existing workstations.
>Nonsense.  It's a high-end Mac with a real operating system)
>





    I hope not. I hope it is much better than Mac.
    Why are you afraid of competition?






>In article <123@dg.dg.com> rec@dg.UUCP (Robert Cousins) writes:
>[much about the DG boom box.  Reads like a press release]
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
 




 Not really. Robert just answered my inquiries with enthusiasm.








>>Languages including C, F77, ADA, Lisp, PL/I, Cobol, Basic, and I think
>>even an RPG compiler (I'm not sure on that).
>
>Well (in NeXT-land), C is a given, Lisp is bundled, FORTRAN has been
>announced, Ada and COBOL would be ... amusing, and Basic will probably
>show up at some point.
>
><insert more commercial propaganda>
		  ^^^^^^^^^^




 Just like you do. Tit for tat, right?





>
>>I disagree.  There are not currently more than 40 developers working
>>to develop NeXT compatible hardware and software offerings of the class
>>and magnitude of those in 88/Open.
>
>"of the class and magnitude".  Don't you love it when they put you
>down?  Seriously, on what information do you base your numbers?  Are
>you working from the current press releases, or just punting?
>






   Granted, he was a bit vague, but aren't you asking now for what you
   objected in the first place (commercial!) ?







>>  The list of ISV's supporting the
>>software initiative includes:
>
>Pulling out competing press releases, only five from your list are
>currently listed as developing for NeXT: Absoft, Frame Technology,
>Franz, Inc.,  Informix Software, and Relational Technology.  So where
>are Adobe, Aldus, Dow Jones, Kinetics, Lotus, and the rest?  I didn't
>spot them on your list, so I guess they're not doing anything of
>sufficient magnitude.
>
>>Not bad, huh?
>
>Sort of.  Most of the companies you listed don't sell anything I want,
>and many of the names mean absolutely nothing to me.  If it was meant
>to impress, it doesn't.
>






    To impress or not, is not a point. NeXT could use some wider
    audience (witness the Businessland deal), just like DG or any
    other company.  If the market for the given machine looks
    greater, more developers will try to do something for that
    machine.  The progress in both hardware and software is needed,
    although it's hard to do. Let's not excuse mediocre hardware
    with good software, or vice-versa. We need progress in both.
    If IBM can licence NeXTStep, why wouldn't DG or anybody else?
    If DG can show NeXT how to improve their hardware, why not?
    Competition as well as cooperation is supposed to bring a
    progress. Give it a chance!









>-=-
>J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)


























--
___________________________________________________________________
Zdenko Tomasic, UWM, Chem. Dept., P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201
UUCP: uwvax!uwmcsd1!uwmcsd4!zdenko
ARPA: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu