🚀 go-pugleaf

Follows is a summary/extract response of my asking what NeXT is doing wrong. As  
was expected the main point was lack of marketing/advertizing. Most points are  
minor and one expects there to be problems with all products.

Most people where really happy with NeXTSTEP and most people think that the  
move to software was a good one.

Why did I do this summary, especially when it has all been said before? In  
Australia I hope that NeXT does not make the same mistakes twice.

NeXT seems to be poised to sell directly here in Australia. Questions like  
whether it will offer any sort of academic support/offers are crucial to many  
academics who would like to use NeXTSTEP themselves.

Like many who have beleived in NeXT (because of the MANY things they have done  
RIGHT!!!!) I have been tormented with not being able to share my knowledge with  
others (except for the general overseas community). Hopefully here in Australia  
we can help NeXT find a place especially in the academic environment.

Thank you to all the people who responded. I am not including contributors  
names, but if anyone has a need to ask further I shall be glad to pass on a  
message.

Aris.

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- weak support for non-netinfo-domaines
- no reaction to error-reports (bug reports in NS 2.1 have not been recified in  
3.0)
- lack of function keys (does this change on the Intel keyboards?) 
- conflict on international versions with choice of function keys and special  
keys @,|,[,],{,},\
- better X-Windows (non-third party) support
- faster and better response to bug reports
- the non-US markets have to be given better attention
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- more advertising, printed and broadcasted
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- NeXT is too afraid of the mainstream
- NeXT should advertise in PC magazines
- are too afraid of seeking broader acceptance
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- inadeqate support for C++
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- could write a tome on what NeXT is doing wrong :-)
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- can't swap to a partition, must be a file
- doesn't provide full support for things like shadow password files
- the Cube keyboard.  All the important Unix keys are on the keypad!
- As far as marketing, I have to ask:  What marketing?
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- do not have a market focus
- they do not respond in positive ways to people external to NeXT
- better service and customer orientation
- NeXT deal with people outside as though they do not know what they are doing
- you can send NeXT email, and they may never respond
- communicating with NeXT is like talking to a Black Hole
- NeXT is the best machine I have ever worked on, and one of the most worthless  
companies I have ever seen
- If NeXT Inc. was a resturant, with the service they have given, they would  
certainly have received no tip and I probably would have walked out.  The fact  
that they have a 5 star chef, and the best food in town does not give anyone  
the right to be snooty and not respect me as a customer.
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- charging for developer support
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- NeXT should bundle Posix and the C compiler with the user version of  
NeXTstep. NeXT should not  try to imitate Sun.
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- the product-placement is poor
- the price is too high
- Steve Jobs is a poor company leader
- speaking for Germany, NeXT was not too friendly to its distributors .The  
distributors had to pay prior to delivery, got no information or marketing  
advice, only small margins, very restrictive contracts. In fact the whole  
marketing was left to the initiative of the distributors.
- there is no reaonable break-in on market. They can not charge $800 or  
whatever for an unknown PC OS. They should dump some 10.000 copies for $100  
(only one for each person), keep track of their adresses and let cook it hot.  
With rise of new applications and the news of successful projects with mission  
critical applications they may go to $1000 and sell a million. For $1000 is  
nothing for a company searching for a solution but too much for a student who  
is just curious.
- still there are no ads in computer magazines.
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- give it a rest and save us from more of this continued nonsense (aris: this  
was a message to me from a justifiable bored/fed up with NeXT programmer).
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- Make it easier to buy NeXTStep/I
- is it possible to get a diskette from NeXT (free) that would check your  
system and tell you whether or not NS/I will run on your machine? MS has such a  
diskette for Windows 3.1.
- target the student population
- corporate users will almost _always_ choose the most popular ("established"  
if you like) OS and not the "best" one
- For student users, make the pot sweeter..include (at a nominal cost) SoftPC,  
Improv, WordPerfect and Mathematica. This need be done only for a short time,  
say a year, till demand catches on.  I am sure these software companies could  
be convinced. Reason: Compare the price: a reasonable NS/installed machine  
costs upwards of $5K, while you can get a reasonable OS/2 running machine (or  
Windows, or DOS) _with_ all the software for under $3K. Sure, you get a faster  
machine, and a great operating system for that extra $2K, but many, including  
myself, are hesitant.
- Finally, like IBM is doing with OS/2 (and MS with Windows) is it possible for  
NeXT to run "leaner" operating systems for "low end" machines? (This may be  
difficult, but you would get many more student users.)
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- Advertising, Advertising, Advertising
- offer very attractive deals (with Mathematica and other standard programs,  
word-processing, spreadsheets) to students
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- frequent demos in schools will create awarenes in NeXT.
- NeXT should encourage third party software developers
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- NeXT has already heard from us.... and has choosen to ignore us.
- NeXT officials... are nothing less than arrogant in their response to user  
critisisms
- some of the technically brilliant people at NeXT ought to take a course or  
something in tactful ethics, and if that doesn't work, hide them from the  
public!
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- NeXT is perfect, NeXTSTEP is perfect, Steve is perfect.
- Any thought about so called errors is a sin against the new religion, the  
NeXT God.
- I don't know what NeXT has done wrong but I know what they do right: shoot  
themselves in their own feet.
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- NeXT does not appreciate somebody telling it what it is doing wrong
- unless it is a bug report
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- I don't think NeXT are doing anything wrong at all
- If NeXT has done anything wrong, it is rushing out NS3.1 for Intel. 3.1 has  
virtually no device drivers, and the so-called "drivers update" is now dragging  
into August.  I think they could have waited an extra two months to release a  
slightly more complete product.
- they need to write some drivers which will convert postscript to HP PCL
- it is important that NeXT talks to as many peripherals as possible
- Get the drivers update CD-ROM out *SOONER* than later, or ship 3.2 with  
SoftPC bundled in September as promised.	
- provide drivers for non-postscript printers
- create an "8-bit color" mode. This will open up NEXTSTEP to virtually  
thousands of 1MB video cards running 1024x768 with 256 colors. Who uses 65,000  
colors anyway?
- port, port, port. Get NS onto as many RISC platforms as possible.
- partnerships. Need I say more?
- marketing and channels. Pull your finger out NeXT, you have the best product,  
but the worst marketing. Cute videos are not going to reach the mass market.  
Also, Steve Jobs asking all the user groups to "ask their local computer store  
to stock NEXTSTEP" is a lame-duck approach, especially since 3.1 is so  
incomplete.
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- source code control well integrated with the NeXT tools. This is necessary,  
if not only a single person is developing, but a team. Many other people have  
integrated that (HP, Sun, IBM) in their tools. This piece is missing. CVS would  
be a nice way to go.
- good support for heterogeneous projects. Like 1 part dsp assembly, 1 part  
c++, 1 part objective-c. The makefiles don't support that nicely and it should  
be possible to just hack a more general set of Makefiles and make  
subconfigurations more encapsulated, so I don't have to care about building  
libraries by hand any more. Something like an automatic build for a library  
would be very nice indeed (without handcoding everything like in the old unix  
days in the makes). Also the documentation of used flags/variables is lacking.  
Things like the OTHER_... are not completely done. The .preamble and .postamble  
are not enough. This will be of increasing concern with a more heterogeneous  
environment coming up for the NeXT software on all the different architectures!
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- priced their software too high, or they've failed to explain why it is worth  
so much, especially to an end-user
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- NeXT has had no interest in setting up in Australia for most of the time it  
has been in operation
- NeXT missed out badly by not getting a toehold in Australia in 1988
- They completly underestimated the level of support that was needed to sell to  
universities. They assumed it would be massive when in fact it is quite small.  
If you don't believe me ask Sun. They were selling machines in Australia with a  
staff of two in most capital cities until the cash flow paid for the expansion  
and now Sun Australia has better market penetration into business sales that  
Sun USA
- NeXT should not compound the mistake by now jumping straight into the  
commercial deep end selling developers kits (NeXTSTEP) for $6,000 and run times  
for $1600 around universities. I mean they should  almost be GIVING  it away to  
uni's. Turning out students year in year out that have used your product, know  
all about it and can be up and running day one for a future employer is  
priceless selling of your product (NeXTSTEP). The investment in seeding the  
university market worked well for DEC, worked well for sun and micosoft and  
apple are both in as far as they can go. It is ironic that Steve's Jobs own  
strategy in the states was exactly what I am proposing but  for some reason in  
Australia they are not going to bother. IMHO it is a mistake that they don't  
have time to make. With regards to Cannon and DataGeneral they have not been  
big in uni's and unless they do an IBM and re-invent themselves I don't see  
them helping NeXTSTEP much at all. Next should be setting themselves up in  
Australia just like Microsoft, Apple and Sun. Corporate culture is very  
important, NeXT has a lot of goodwill which I doubt will filter through when  
customers are dealing with the likes of Canon and DG.
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- radically expand distribution channels.  Ingram/Micro is a good start, but I  
wanna see shrinkwrap NS/I in more PC/Mac software stores.  Reason:  A lot of  
users would go with NS if they could try before they buy.  Unless they can  
"test-drive" a product in-store alongside other wares (such as OS/2), they'll  
likely go the cheap, crappy route.  NS is addictive.  Get people hooked by  
letting them use it.
- NS/I User is an absolute bargain at $US795, and I realize that NeXT's  
licensing fees for PostScript, RenderMan, Pantone, etc. are high--but, if at  
all possible, lower the bar as much as possible.  The cheaper, the better.
- reestablish ties with Universities.  In Calgary, where I live, the U of C's  
Microstore has NO copies of NEXTSTEP, nor are they inclined to order any.  
They're kinda pissed off at NeXT for spontaneously pulling the plug on  
hardware, and see no reason to promote NS/I in the future.  NeXT still needs  
higher-ed.  Action is critical.
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- NeXTSTEP 3.1 should be available to Australian academic institutions and  
students in the same manner as found in the US. I am sure that this will  
happen.

- A combined bundle of Mathematica with the Intel version of NeXTSTEP would be  
good. Take a moment to notice that departments will often buy a machine in  
order to run a particular program, and I have seen this done with Mathematica.  
Some definite X-Windows package deal would be good, to satisfy the standards  
committees.

- Send some advertizing to universities directly. Prove to people that NeXT has  
the solution to their problems. Or hasn't it?
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--

name: aris theocharides.
address: room mg14, maths dept, melb uni, parkville, vic, australia, 3052.
phone [+613] uni: 344.74.16, home: 489.90.14, fax: 344.45.99
e.mail: aris@foucault.maths.mu.OZ.AU (NeXTmail)