🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3533@rosie.NeXT.COM> sam_s@NeXT.com (Sam Streeper) writes:
>
> More idle pondering...  Is NeXTstep expensive?  Is it a bargain?  I think
> the answer to both may be yes...
> 
> When you count licences for Unix, PostScript, Fonts, Renderman, etc etc
> it all adds up.  On top of that, have you ever priced similar (if
> inferior) tools and libraries on the sun?
> 
> Looking Glass is "something like" WorkSpace.  $795
> I just got a brochure for a MallocDebug like tool, $3000
> The list goes on.  This is expensive stuff!
> 
> But you know, I see that Bill Gates expects to sell 1.3 million copies
> of Windows 3.1 in the first couple of months of release.  Do you ever
> get the feeling that the computer world just waits for Bill to decree
> what the next OS will be and then buys several million copies?
> 
I've been one of those grumbling about the NeXTstep pricing announced at the  
expo, but I've lately reconsidered just a touch. Microsoft's cheap pricing of  
Windows is not unlike the low cost to buy a Gilette Sensor razor; since  
Microsoft has the best-selling Windows app in just about every category  
(presentation and software development being the two major exceptions),  
Microsoft can afford to give away (so to speak) Windows while making billions  
of dollars selling Windows apps.  Since NeXT has no NeXTstep apps to sell, and  
since every off-the-shelf sale of NeXTstep is, in effect, a lost NeXT platform  
sale, NeXT has got to keep the price up so as not to lose money on the whole  
thing.

On the other hand, I think the $995 vs. $2500 for developer version pricing is  
awfully hard to justify, especially since development centers on the Gnu  
gcc/gdb development tools (which are free).  ..bruce..

Bruce F. Webster
Director, BRI
bwebster@pages.com

#import <pages/disclaimer.h>