🚀 go-pugleaf

David Lemson writes
> spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (Stefano Pagiola) writes:
> >Keep in mind that not all people's needs are identical.

> you sometimes never know what you will need/want in the future.
> Having ethernet built-in means a couple of things:
> - If you ever need to rebuild your machine, you can take it to a
> networked site and netboot with little trouble (arguable, but you
> never know)
> - You might want to have another machine in the future, whether it
> is a PC, or another NeXT and may want to share files. 
> ...
> - Like EPS said, ethernet added into a NeXT probably costs <$30, by
> my guess. Certainly less then $100 in raw parts, since you can get
> a PC ethernet card for that, albeit not a fast 32-bit one like the
> NeXT has.

I agree with all these points, but the last one about costs is the  
clincher.  To all the other points, one could easily argue that if  
needs develop such as to require networking, then add it at that  
time.  If ethernet added $1000 in cost to every system, would the  
other points be compelling (even though they'd remain valid)?

My argument with EPS is that calling people morons because they asked  
a reasonable question was insulting to people whose only fault is not  
knowing the info on costs above, and that the attitude of "everybody  
needs x" is, in general, just plain wrong.

Much more accurate to say, "most people could potentially benefit  
from x; since x is so cheap, lets give it to everybody."  But note  
that you can't carry on this argument forever.  At some point you  
have to make tradeoffs, and decide that "even though many people  
would find y useful, either they are too small a fraction of all  
potential users or the cost is too high, so y is best left out and  
added by users as necessary."

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