🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4129@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
  
> This claim requires some looking behind the hype.
  
> The fourth is running unavailable software from Brown University 
> that brings up pictures and text from British novels, using the Toolbox.  
> (By the way,
> they are calling the Brown stuff "hypertext" and taking Ted Nelson's
> name in vain.  It ain't hypertext, it's just hype.)

Apple shouldn't have to resort to all the stuff you mention.. 
A friend of mine listened to an interview with Ted Nelson on a local 
radio station, apparently Mr. Nelson seemed more enamored with Sun than 
the Mac.  She said he criticized MacOS as having "design flaws".  Maybe
Apple doesn't pay homage to those that pay no homage to Apple.

> I'd hate to be totally negative in this article, so let me just say
> that there *is* a window system for A/UX.  You just can't buy it from
> Apple.  We sell it; it's called MacNews, and it's a straight port of
> Sun's NeWS, with all of NeWS's problems and all of NeWS's virtues.  The
> first test copy went out last night, and it has a firm release date and
> a firm price.
If you have been following the NeWS/X debate in comp.sys.windows recently
then you are aware that a number of responses dealing with actual hands on
NeWS experience haveing been extremely positive.  One in particular recounted
that his only previous window/graphics experience was with the Mac Toolbox-
he stated he would take NeWS *any day*.  Another recounted that two 
experienced C programmers undertook X and NeWS efforts .  The X fellow
switched to NeWS after the project was over.  NeWS on the Mac is good
news (no pun intended) for Apple.  

It should be noted that this is all contrary to Mr Jean Louis-Gassee naive 
sense of economics (Mr. Gassee is a proponent of retaining - not licensing - 
technology ...).  
Apple has turned to Unix - an OS which they do NOT own and are now able to 
take advantage of windowing systems (NeWS/X) which they do NOT own, networking 
systems (NFS/yellowpages) they do NOT own...Ethernet a technology they do NOT 
own.  Gassee has gone out of his way lately to pronounce on the gullible
that licensing technology is bad and proprietary technology is good.  However,
one need only look at what Apple *does* to understand the limitations of his
views.

Let's face it licensing technology is something that enriches *all* of us.
Sun has allowed others to license (and Apple is using much of this 
technology NOW) :
 	* NeWS (which is now on the Apple - thanks to Grasshopper), 
	* NFS/Yellowpages (which is how Apple will do their ethernet
	   networking, 
	* SunOS SVID Unix which they are licensing and will
	  deliver to AT&T (and which Apple will eventually license :)
	* 7-10 MIP SPARC processor (who knows maybe their is a SPARC
	  in Apple's future.  It would make sense they would be
          binary compatible with Sun and AT&T...I think not tho' given
          their recent alliance with DEC )
No amount of paranoia about Sun licensing it's products to American and
Japanese vendors can deny the simple fact that a product like NeWS is
good for the Mac consumer...

> If you buy A/UX, buy it because you know what you are
> getting, not because you believed an Apple snow job.
good point. their seems to be to much of it going around these days by
all these computer companies.  Some of it borders on outright deliberate
deception.

Incidentally two articles Mac II/ A/UX users might be interested in :
*Unix World has a bunch of articles on A/UX
*Feb. '88 MacWorld page 17 - Sushi, American Style 
--------------------------------------------
My thoughts are my own.  No one else would have them.