🚀 go-pugleaf

Brian Rogers writes
> I've often wondered about NeXTSTEP for 486.  How much does
> it cost?  Is it affordable for a Joe Schmoe like me?  For that
> matter, hearing you mention NeXTSTEP in the context of fast,
> LocalBus, ectc. 486's is rather discouraging at times -- My
> wallet cringes.
> 
OK.  First, price.  Nothing has been announced yet.  A $1000 price  
was bandied about at one time (ie competitive with other Unix  
offerings like SCO or Solaris), but latest rumors place it lower than  
that.  I expect to see it in the $700 range.  Before you freak out,  
bear in mind that this includes a whole lot of goodies that you'd  
normally pay extra for.  Multimedia Mail.  A suite of networking  
software including Netware client software.  A variety of apps.   
More.

Second, system requirements.  To get good (ie equivalent to NeXT's  
own hardware) performance, you'll need pretty heavy-duty equipment,  
including fast data buses.  Getting data to your display in  
particular will be a bottleneck.  But to a large extent you can make  
your own price/performance trade-offs.  (Dell and some other makers  
will be selling pre-configured systems with NeXTSTEP pre-installed,  
or you can build your own system by mix and matching components).

The bottom line is that this is a very powerful OS, and it requires  
powerful hardware to run on.  But make no mistake, if you think  
you'll wait for NT and not have to get the same kind of powerful  
hardware, you're wrong.  The only reason all these new OSs can do the  
things they do is by having muscle to back them.  Look at Windows  
3.1; tried running it on a 286 lately?  Yeah, it'll run, but you  
wouldn't want to do it every day.  Ditto on NT; it might run on 386s  
etc, but it won't be pleasant.  Look at OS/2; seen the minimum  
equipment specs?  So yes, NeXTSTEP has high system requirements, but  
so will all other top-of-the-line OSs.

Is it affordable?  That depends on your budget.  Is it worth it?  I  
think definitely.

> Or could I run NeXTSTEP and a plain ol' 386DX-33?

You can pick your own performance with NeXTSTEP (ie put a slower  
graphics card, get slower display) but you cannot, repeat, cannot run  
it on 386.  Period.  It requires a 'true' 486 (ie some cheapo 486  
clones won't work either).

I have a copy of the latest 'Questions and Answers' on NeXTSTEP 486  
that I'll be glad to email a copy of to anyone who requests it.


--
-
Stefano Pagiola
Food Research Institute, Stanford University
spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)
spagiola@FRI-nxt-Pagiola.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)