🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Apr10.164205.3372@cs.yale.edu> nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu  
(Nathan F. Janette) writes:
> In article <bf7H1pbm6@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)  
> writes:
> 
> > NeXT now has to explain to the
> > world why NeXTstep is better than OS/2, which has VM,
> > memory protection, multiprocessing, threads,
> > 512MB/process, drag and drop capabilities, IPC, ...,
> > which can be purchased for $200, and which will run 25,000
> > PC programs.
>
> Not only that, but NeXTstep 486 will only run on *select*
> (ie the most expensive) 486 machines.
> 

This is really the problem.  NeXTstep is a high performance system.  The price  
is a secondary issue.  The real questions for most DOS users are:
  1) Will it do DOS/Windows3 emulation at a decent speed?
  2) What is the minimum (i.e., cheapest) usable configuration?

NeXT will never take away the Windows 3.1 market.  Period.
It would be folly to try.

*IF* NeXTstep '486:
  a) is able to 'co-exist' with full-speed Windows 3.1 (a la coXist)
  b) can run something like SoftPC at >= '386 speeds
AND
  has the same requirements as Windows NT
  (disk drive, monitor, RAM)
THEN
  they should aggressively compete price-wise with Windows NT.

Otherwise, they should just compete with the smaller (but still lucrative!)  
Unix windowing market:  Solaris, SCO (what GUI, if any?), Mach386, etc.

Sure, they will be a niche market, like Apple is relative to PCs.  Not everyone  
desires perfection, after all. :-)  NeXT does not have to be "the biggest" in  
order to survive.   (Besides, if they were, Steve Jobs would probably turn into  
Bill Gates II!).

You can't put a ramjet on a skateboard.
You can't put Unix on a minimal DOS-box.

- Ernie "NeXT purity" Prabhakar
--
Ernest N. Prabhakar                  Caltech High Energy Physics
Member, League for Programming Freedom (league@prep.ai.mit.edu)
CaJUN President        NeXTMail:ernest@pundit.cithep.caltech.edu
"...and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake." - II Cor 5:13a
#import <std/disclaimer.h>