🚀 go-pugleaf

The reason I was asking if software running on an 040-cube would run on the  
upcoming NeXT RISC-based workstation was for two reasons: 

1) My system is monochrome. I would like to get a color NeXT machine (decided,  
wisely it seems, against the NeXTdimension), and have pretty much decided to  
wait to see the RISC machines before investing in the current color offerings.  
With the speed ratings (~200 MIPS) being brandied about in comp.sys.x, it seems  
as if these machines will be most appropriate for my intended usage (high-end  
graphics/animation/post-production).

2) I saw some very interesting software at Seybold San Francisco recently:  
Retouche (image processing from 3K Computerbild), Stylist (page layout from  
Archetype), announcements for several 3D modeling packages (including Stone  
Designs' 3Dreality) and several CAD packages in short, many of the applications  
I have been waiting for on this platform for 2-3 years now. This was very  
exciting, even if it is probably 6 or 8 months before this stuff really  
happens... But to get back to the point, I was very hesitant to purchase, or  
intend to purchase, any of these applications unless they will run on the RISC  
machines (assuming for a moment that my future NeXT color system will indeed be  
a RISC machine).

The several replies I got directly or saw posted confirmed my suspicion that  
software compiled to run on 040 machines will not run on RISC machines. Would  
any developers out there care to comment on how they indend to deal  
(financially) with this issue? For example, will you send out two versions in  
the same packaging, offer a reasonable fee (say on the order of an "upgrade"  
price) for purchasing both versions of the same package, or at the very least a  
nominal charge for license-type use on two different machines?

On a related note: I think that the RISC machine will be able to be networked  
with my Cube (right?). Is it going to be possible to, say, model on the Cube  
and render on the RISC (or vice versa), or any other foreseeable combinations  
of using these machines in tandem? I'm thinking here of distributed computing,  
which seems like such a good idea for really using these machines together. Is  
there going to be some conflict because the systems use different CPUs? Pardon  
my ignorance if this is obvious, I am not an engineer...

I look forward to your replies,

Thierry Castro
tlc@cx5.com