Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:44418 comp.sys.next:4402
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!eniac.seas.upenn.edu!bell
From: bell@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Mike Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: What do I want to see in the Apple of the 90's?
Message-ID: <18188@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 89 16:25:17 GMT
References: <23098@brunix.UUCP> <3335@hub.UUCP>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: bell@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Mike Bell)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 66

In article <3335@hub.UUCP> 6600pete@hub.UUCP writes:
>From article <23098@brunix.UUCP>, by rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony):
>>> NeXT is notorious for missing
>>> ship dates; they've missed the date for color before already.
>> 
>> NeXT has so far a pretty good record for KEEPING the things 
>> they promised. Including deadlines. The only time so far...
>
>Nope. They told us we would have the machine with a real OS (or they implied
>it would have a real OS by telling us the machine would be ready) about 6
>months before it actually shipped. And they told us they would have color
>NeXT month, January (this was a rep we had on campus last summer).
>
>>> And don't get me going on the beta versions of Mach...
>
>> MACH is pretty stable...


    OK, this discussion has lined the Mac camp up against the NeXT camp. Well,
I am both a Mac developer and a NeXT Developer, and I have one thing to add.
As a developer, I judge a machine on two main criteria; the machine itself, 
and the developer support I receive from the company that makes it. I have
developed for the Mac for over 5 years, and have always received tech notes,
a commercial support network (Applelink), bug fixes and patches...etc.

  The support that NeXT gives in comp.sys.next is great...but not everyone has
access to netnews. Also, there are hundreds of undocumented anomolies  
(missing symbolic links, undocumented program features, undocumented changes
that must be aplied to standard unix programs to run on the NeXT, out-and-out
bugs, etc...)  that have never been mentioned to the registered developers.
I am also still waiting for the magical NeXTbus interface chip; without which 
I cant do any hardware development. Developing for the Next has really made 
me appreciate Appple's Developer Tech Support, and all the little things that 
they do that we developers take for granted.

  All that said, I do like and use my NeXT....as a UNIX machine. Right now,
however, it isn't going to replace my Mac. It is possible to do things on the  
NeXT that you cant do on the Mac, but there are some basic programs on the 
NeXT that are painfully slow....specifically graphics programs. As the 
hardware evolves, this may change.(Hopefully).


  Now if I only had MACH on my Mac with a finder front end..........





					Mike Bell

 





********************************************************************************
     
Mike Bell                                     CSnet: BELLMA%ERVX01@dupont.com
Senior Engineer                               Applelink: D2747
DuPont Electronic Imaging
Core Technology Group

    MacBrisc..... When you feel the need for speed..........

********************************************************************************