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From: phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: What do I want to see in the Apple of the 90's?
Message-ID: <6761@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 89 01:32:44 GMT
Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Lines: 78

In article <3326@hub.UUCP>, 6600pete@hub.UUCP writes...
 
>In contrast, the Mac has 32-bit QuickDraw NOW. And don't tell me it'll be
>here for the NeXT at the end of summer. NeXT is notorious for missing
>ship dates; they've missed the date for color before already. And don't
>get me going on the beta versions of Mach...

I have had a Mac before I bought my NeXT, so don't tell me I haven't used
a Mac. One thing is for sure: what you consider a beta version is certainly
much more reliable and stable than the unprotected Macintosh OS. If you
run the wrong application on your Mac, your system dies. In contrast, my
NeXT at one time was up for WEEKS, and I use the thing about 12hours/day.
You are comparing the beta version of a Mercedes against the "refined" version
of a Model T.

>Nope. You can do it with a LaserWriter (not even a Plus) and a Mac Plus.
>MF makes the wait even shorter.

Don't make us laugh. Sure, a CP/M machine can do this, too. That doesn't
mean it's worth anything. Incidentally, what's the going price of a new
Laserwriter? So, why do people buy NT and NTX laserprinters, if they can do
what you want to do on a non-plus laserwriter?

>> [ list of Mac applications ported to the NeXT, vaporware, and other
>>   applications which have had implementations of their type on the Mac
>>  for years. ]

Like Excel? Which for years had a 1MB memory limit? Until late in this
year, there wasn't a single decent Mac spreadsheet which allowed us to
use memory. Tell me: what decent Stats package exists on a Mac? What decent
data handling processing languages and data tools exist on a Macs (although
you and I may disagree here). Text Filters? Programming Tools? Graphically
oriented Unix (don't tell me about A/UX [but factor in the $1000 price tag])?

>Buzz. The NeXT's interface is more versatile and less consistent. Might
>as well be a PC with a graphics package. Good bye, interface. Good
>bye, reusability of user knowledge.

Good bye, intelligence. I don't think its any more inconsistent than the
Mac user interface, and its applications (try Microsoft garbage). Sorry,
if you judge consistency by similarity to the Mac, NeXT won't do.

>Oh, how nice. Universities get it for dirt cheap. Sounds like Apple's deal.
>It's a marketing strategy, nothing more. Do you think Jobs would throw so
>much away of what he learned at Apple?

This sounds like, Apple is a school specializing in teaching employees
like Jobs how to do things :-). I agree, though. Anyone with an introductory
course in Industrial Organizations and Price Discrimination knows that its
profitable to lower the price where the demand is the most elastic.

>And no software, relatively speaking. And no interface consistency. And
>periodic forced graphics upgrades to run new software.

I think there is more GOOD software today on the NeXT than there is for
the Mac and the PC combined. We already chatted about interface consistency.
I am glad to hear that Apple decides to never force any upgrades, but stick
to its good old proven design. Lucky for them, they don't have 640K problems,
or they would have to invent OS/2 like schemes.


>And the emulator won't run Virtual, System 7.0, and I don't think Color QD.
>What a bargain.

The point here was not to argue that one should buy an Atari, but that the
Mac is vastly overpriced. The hardware---not the compatibility---is there
at 1/2 the price

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Pete Gontier   | InterNet: 6600pete@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu, BitNet: 6600pete@ucsbuxa
>Editor, Macker | Online Macintosh Programming Journal; mail for subscription
>Hire this kid  | Mac, DOS, C, Pascal, asm, excellent communication skills

Ivo Welch
Assistant Professor of Finance
UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management
w/o entrenched interest in Macintosh magazines and NeXT failure,
and/or interest in submitting Mac and *D*O*S* articles.